At the press conference yesterday afternoon, the Yunnan
provincial public security bureau and the Kunming city procuratorate stated:
The detainee Li Qiaoming in the Jinning county detention centre had been
beaten to death by cell mates. The game of "elude the cat" was the
excuse by which the prison bullies abuse and assault newcomers. It was
also disclosed that six members of the public security bureau and the
procuratorate were given administrative penalties.

The incident took place at 5pm on February 8. The
prison bullies blindfolded Li Qiaoming under the guise of playing "elude the
cat" and then assaulted him. The fatal blow came from Pu Huayong,
which caused Li Qiaoming to fall back and hit his head against the wall.
Li became unconscious and died in the hospital on February 12. The
forensic doctor determined that Li died from blunt blows that caused severe
head injuries.

The announcement yesterday overturned the conclusion
previously issued by the Jinning police, which said on February 20 to the
netizen investigative team that Li Qiaoming had a fight with others during
the "elude the cat" game and hurt his head against the door frame. In
its press repelase, the Jinning police called it an "accident."

However, it was also said that the police did not cover up
the facts. Instead, they had published preliminary results of their
investigation in order to satisfy the media. The final findings were
different because the prison bullies had concocted a joint defense by
fabricating the "elude the cat" story and misled the investigators.

Previously Jinning county had declined to provide the
surveillance videos to the netizen investigative committee. The deputy
prosecutor general Han Hongbing opined that the surveillance tapes are state
secrets and the Kunmming police representative supported this opinion.
It was disclosed yesterday that the surveillance equipment at that cell had
broken down six months ago but was never repaired. This is the reason
why the detention center director has been dismissed from his job.

After a wait of 33
years, fans of legendary writer Eileen Chang can finally get their hands on
one of her works they feared had been lost forever. Her autobiographical novel
Little Reunion went on sale in Hong Kong bookstores yesterday, despite
rumours that the writer had wanted the manuscript destroyed.

Roland Soong Yee-long, the administrator of
Chang's estate, said his examination of the writer's letters revealed she had
always wanted to publish the book. In a letter Chang wrote to her publisher,
Crown Publishing, in 1993 she wrote: "Little Reunion must be completed
in due course. I will never disappoint my readers again."

At the launch yesterday at the University of
Hong Kong, Mr Soong said: "This book is legendary. It would be a great
literary loss if the manuscript were destroyed." He said Chang, who died in 1995, completed
the novel in 1976 and the title had once appeared in the catalogue of Crown
Publishing, which was why many of her fans had been looking forward to it for
decades. However, Taiwan's tense political situation in the 1970s meant it was
difficult to publish. It tells the story of a young girl who falls in love
with a traitor, who in real life was Chang's ex-husband, Hu Lancheng. Mr Soong
said his father, Chang's close friend, Stephen Soong Chi, advised her not to
publish the book. As the people involved died one by one and
the political scene in Taiwan changed, Mr Soong said it was an apt time to
publish the novel.

Little Reunion
is about a girl who grows up in Shanghai and goes to Hong Kong for her
university studies. When the second world war breaks out she moves back to
Shanghai and falls in love with a married man who works for the Japanese.
"This book is about how a writer
was born," Mr Soong said. "Chang once said the best material for a writer is
the things she knows best."

Chang is perhaps best known for her story
Lust, Caution, which was made into a film in 2007 by Ang Lee. Meanwhile,
Mr Soong said he was working on three or four of Chang's unpublished
manuscripts, which should be published in the future. He also donated HK$1 million to the
University of Hong Kong for the establishment of the "Eileen Chang Memorial
Scholarship", which will be awarded to female arts and humanities students
from the mainland or Taiwan.

[048] Cyberbullying
(02/26/2009) This is a TVB Pearl (Hong Kong) program in which the ESWN
blogger shows up briefly (don't blink!).

So you entered the Band 4 and 6 English test in China, and
the College English Test (CET) committee tells you that there is a free
website where you can check your marks. You go to the website and see
that the page is divided into checking results on one side and advertising
on the other side. You want to check your marks. The page tells
you that you must install an additional piece of software. You install
this piece of software and you enter your candidate identification number
and the pass code. A page pops up to count down from 30 seconds while
there is a prompt for you to enter your QQ number to register. 30
seconds later, you found your marks. The page then shows a list of
other candidates who are your fellow students and who have left comments.
You want to see what they have to say. But you need to register before
you can read them. You finish registering and then you find out that
there are no comments, just another online game advertisement ...

Yesterday, the People's Daily published a report entitled
<Are the interests of the students worth less than commercial activities?>.
The relevant government departments declined to be interview by People's
Daily for this report.

Many students resent the fact that when they want to check
their results, they get information that ostensibly come from other students
or are lured to register and receive advertisements. "I checked the
comments on the right hand side which come from my fellow students with
subjects like 'Mail from YYY: XXX please help me' and so on. So I
click and see what was said. But I was forced to register before I can
see it. I registered and when I entered, I almost coughed blood.
It was an online game from 99sushe.com.

One netizen believes whenever a student enters his/her
candidate identification number, the website will immediately send
information in the names of those other students with adjacent candidate
identification numbers, because they are most likely from the same class in
the same school.

According to 99sushe.com, the software download and the
verification process are necessary in order to guarantee network security.
They said that they did so in order to protect the privacy of the users.
As for the 30 second countdown, this is is relieve the load on the servers
since there are 8 million candidates and tens of thousands of people could
be checking their results. As to whether CET allowed 99sushe to insert
advertisements during the inquiry process, the 99sushe.com spokesperson
declined to comment. Meanwhile, nobody was picking up the phone at CET
to answer this question.

The budget speech was interrupted by outspoken lawmaker
Leung Kwok-hung, also known as “Long Hair”, and some supporters for about 10
minutes. This occurred about an hour into the speech, when protester League
of Social Democrats chairman Raymond Wong Yuk-Man shouted: “You don’t care
about the livelihood of the poor!” He then approached Mr Tsang, trying to
take away his speech. Security guards and Legco staffers immediately
intervened. League of Social Democrats members Leung Kwok-hung and Albert
Chan Wai-yip also shouted out loudly. During the interruptions, loud
classical music was played on the Cable TV’s live broadcast. “Long Hair”
threw an inflatable banana toy at Mr Tsang, but it did not hit him. A glass
of water in front of the financial secretary was knocked over. The three
lawmakers were then escorted outside. Legco chairman Tsang Yok-sing said
they could not remain in the Legco building during the speech. Mr Tsang
later said the three had achieved nothing with their outburst.

If someone went to a restaurant for tea and someone else
took similar actions against him, he would be calling the police for sure.
But when such actions occur repeatedly inside the Legislative Council,
nobody cares. The standards for public order at Legco should not be
any less than a restaurant, or else the reputation of Hong Kong will be
tarnished.

Fortunately, half of the legislators (that is, thirty
persons) immediately signed a joint condemnation of the three members of the
League of Social Democrats. It appears that the day when the three
will "self-immolate" is near. The most disappointing aspect is that
Civic Party, which has also been the target of unreasonable attacks from the
League of Social Democrats, did not dare to criticize them yesterday.

The explanation from the pan-democrats was that they do
not want to be trapped by the pro-establishment camp into "attacking their
own people." Besides, even though they disapprove of the action by the
League of Social Democrats, they thought that the officials must bear a
certain amount of responsibility themselves because they personally witness
a previous incident in which the League of Social Democrats harass
government officials inside the chamber but the two sides chatted amiably
outside afterwards.

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker
Chien-ming (柯建銘) told a press conference yesterday that he had spoken with
Chang Wei-chin (張瑋津), the estranged wife of former ICRT DJ Charles Mack —
better known by his nickname “Chocolate” — and Prosecutor Wu Wen-chung (吳文忠)
about an alleged DVD recording of Chang’s husband and President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九) having intimate relations before last year’s presidential election.
Ker said news of the alleged DVD first came to light before last year’s
presidential election, but only Ma and Chang could prove its existence.
He said the prosecutor, Ma and Chang should explain the matter to the
public.

When he talked to Chang and Wu Wen-chung about the
allegations, Ker said Wu Wen-chung told him that “actually, there are
prosecutors of the same inclination.” Wu told him he had seen the DVD
and that it was real, the legislator said. Ker said Chang did not go public
with the alleged recording, preventing former DPP presidential candidate
Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) from taking advantage of it during the campaign. Ker
said, however, that he hoped Ma, Chang and Wu would tell the truth about the
matter. Ker’s comments came a day after former president Chen
Shui-bian (陳水扁) alleged in court that Wu Wen-chung had prevented a scandal
involving the alleged DVD.

Mack, who is a US citizen, was repatriated on Feb. 6, 2004, after law
enforcement officers accused him of having intimate relations after being
diagnosed with syphilis without telling his partners. Mack was married
to Chang, who said she was a friend of the former president and his wife, Wu
Shu-jen (吳淑珍). Chen said Chang had a DVD of Mack and Ma having
intimate relations and intended to use the DVD to ruin Ma’s presidential
prospects last year. Wu Wen-chung used his position as a prosecutor to
stop her, Chen said.

Asked about the allegation by TV reporters yesterday,
Chang said: “Go and ask Ma Ying-jeou, or ask [former Taipei deputy mayor]
King Pu-tsung (金溥聰).” She said that Mack was still her husband as she
has yet to file divorce papers.

Chen Shui-bian revealed in court that there was a DVD that
showed an intimate relationship between Chang Wei-chin and her ex-husband
Charles "Chocolate" Mack. Do you believe it?

70.95%: I don't believe it -- Ah Bian must have lost his
mind because he didn't get enough food during his starvation protest
16.81%: I believe it -- I have always doubted the sexual orientation of
President Ma Ying-jeou
12.25%: Don't know/no opinion

[044] The Eluding The Cat Chat Record
(Southern
Metropolis Daily) The Secrets of the QQ Chat Records of the Government on
the “Elude the Cat” Affair. February 23, 2009.

[in
translation]

The Yunnan provincial publicity department insisted on having
fully open information in order to deal with the public opinion storm over
the “elude the cat” incident.

Yesterday afternoon, the Yunnan provincial publicity
department deputy director Wu Hao was interviewed online by Yunnan Net, and
afterwards showed the QQ chat session record to the reporter in a stunning
move. This record was the history of the entire process by which netizens
were invited to join the investigative committee, including the controversy
over the choice of who to include on the list, the reason why permission was
denied to the committee to meet with the principals of the case and whether
the investigative committee director was a “fifty-cent ganger” (wumaodang).

The QQ group known as “Wu Hao’s Internet opinon box” is the
QQ group for the Yunnan provincial publicity department deputy director.
The group members are mainly provincial publicity department officials,
media reporters, website workers, etc. Wu Hao said that he used this QQ
group to understand what the grassroots media workers are thinking.
Sometimes, he seeks out their opinions before announcing certain decisions.

Late yesterday night, Yunnan Net even posted the entire chat
record. The publication of this official QQ chat record caused another wave
of heated discussion. The netizens gave very high marks to the action.
Like the original public notice to invite netizens to join the investigative
committee, this action also shook up the Internet and many people found this
to be unthinkable.

Our reporter reviewed this 40-page chat record and came up
with five key questions.

(1)The inside story of the public invitation to
join the investigative committee

The chat record showed that at 14:29 on the afternoon of
February 19, the Yunnan provincial publicity department deputy director Wu
Hao announced in the QQ group that they were looking for netizens to sign up
for the investigative committee. Within one minute, the netizens “Tail End
of the Wind” and “Bian Min” (who works for the newspaper <New Life News>)
signed up via QQ. Wu Hao immediately announced that “since the two of you
were the first to sign up, you will be the director and deputy director of
this investigative committee!” Then Wen Xing also signed up. They began to
discuss how to report and communicate this to the public.

On 15:25, “The Cloud from the South” posted the public notice
and requested the Internet media to cross-post. The various Yunnan website
published the notice. Four minutes later, Wu Hao’s telephone at the
Information Office was overwhelmed by calls. The people who already signed
up on the QQ group were the first to call.

When interviewed by Yunnan Net yesterday, Wu Hao made a point
about the selection criteria and process of the netizen members of the
investigative committee. He said that the original plan designated the
first applicants as the director and deputy director. They had originally
been concerned that nobody would sign up, so the plan included “incentives”
for early sign-ups. Out of the same concern, Wu Hao mobilized within his QQ
group first before making the official notice public. Among the first three
applicants, Bian Min is Dong Yubin, who is the Internet commentary
supervisor for <New Life News> , Tail End of the Wind is Zhao Li who is an
editor for Yunnan TV Net and Wen Xing is a reporter at <New Life News>.

(2) The controversy over the list of investigative
committee members

On the evening of February 19, the Yunnan provincial
publicity department announced the name of the investigative committee
members. Immediately, someone raised questions. <New Life News> reporter
Wen Xing asked immediately: “How come I am listed as a netizen and not as a
media representative?” Yunnan Daily Net’s Gan said bluntly: “There is going
to be a problem with this.” Yunnan provincial publicity department deputy
director Wu Hao then asked why he said that.

Gan then held a private chat session with Wu Hao in another
window. Gan said that he was concerned that the outside world would think
that the netizens in the list are really “fifty-cent gang members.” “Bian
Min and them can be media representatives. Netizens should be pure netizens.”
Gan pointed out that Bian Min was listed as a netizen in the list and he is
the deputy director of the investigative committee. In real life, Bian Min
is the Internet commentary supervisor over at <New Live News>.

Wu Hao then began a discussion with Gan as to how many people
in the lists were pure netizens. Gan said that there was only two. Wu Wao
said that it was three on the basis of the work units of the people. Later
on, this reporter found out that four of the eight netizen representatives
are both netizens and media workers, while the other four are “pure netizens.”

Wu Hao also explained that since Bian Min and Tail End of the
Wind were the first to sign up, “I appointed them as the director and deputy
director.” Gan agreed that they can serve in those positions, but he also
suggested that they not be listed as “netizen representatives.”

Wu Hao proposed contacting the information office to discuss
the addition of two more pure netizen representatives. Gan recommended that
“the netizen representatives should be pure netizens in order to show our
determination and not be accused by others that we are using ‘fifty-cent
gangers’.”

But this discussion was not pursued any further according to
the QQ chat record. The list was not altered.

(3)Future plans

By February 21, there were plenty of doubts about the
statuses of Tail End of the Wind, Bian Min, Wen Xing and Ji Bu. Some
netizens thought that they were “fifty-cent gang members.”

At 00:05 on February 22, a discussion began inside the QQ
group. Wu Hao said: “At the time, someone reminded me not to let Bian Min
and them lead the committee. I only considered that I had promised to let
the first applicants be the committee director and deputy director. It
would seem that I had not fully considered everything.”

Yunnan Net’s Lian Fuying thought that the Yunnan websites had
fewer doubts about the identities of these people because most local
netizens knew that Bian Mina and Tail End of the Wind have good
reputations. But netizens outside of Yunnan had lesser awareness.

Lian Fuying recommended a second investigation that
specifically includes netizens from outside Yunnan. Wu Hao did not think
that there was any need to have another investigation. “But the concerns of
the netizens must be addressed.” Wu Hao said. “When I do my Yunnan Net
interview tomorrow, I will officially announce that the committee will not
disbanded until the police report is released. The committee will collect
the doubts from the netizens and hand them over to the police in a formal
document.”

But Wu Hao did not bring up this point in the Yunnan Net
interview. Our reporter contacted two members of the investigative
committee. Both said that they have not been told about whether the
investigative committee has completed its mission or whether it should
continue to exist.

(4)The problems at the meeting

At 00:40 on February 22, Wu Hao posted the private chat
sessions with Pig Man earlier at 21:00 on February 21. During this private
chat, Pig Man posted a hyperlink to the editorial piece in Southern
Metropolis Daily that day entitled “The Netizen Investigative Committee
cannot relieve our anxiety over learning the truth>. The piece spoke of the
regret that the netizen investigative committee over not being able to get
to the details in the heart of the case.

Wu Hao had this to say: “The people in the judiciary did not
heed the advice of us in the publicity department. They rejected the
committee’s request to meet with the suspect because it was ‘against the
law.’ I feel very much helpless. It would be better if we make everything
open and transparent in the case.”

“I told them repeatedly not to get stuck with arguing whether
it was ‘eluding the cat’ as opposed to ‘blind man catching fish.’ They
didn’t believe me. At the negotiation meeting, everything went well and the
committee could meet the key witnesses. But if they changed their minds at
the last minute, it cannot be good.” Wu Hao said that he did not expect
that the local authorities would change their minds suddenly.

Wu Hao said that the Jinning county party secretary was “very
mad at the deputy secretary general. They had to ruin what was a good
thing.”

Wu Hao said that they should have done their best to see if
it was at all possible under the law for the committee to meet with the
suspect. Other QQ members such as Tail End of the Wind thought that a
civilian investigative committee does not have the right to do so.

Wu Hao then asked whether there was no surveillance video or
they were just not allowed to view it. Tail End of the Wind replied: “There
was no surveillance video but we wouldn’t have the right to see it anyway if
it existed.” He said that they did not observe any surveillance equipment
at the scene and that was consistent with the relevant regulations.

(5)The “Fifty-cent Gang” issue

In the last section of the private chat between Wu Mao and
Tail End of the Wind published by the Yunnan provincial publicity
department, Wu Hao asked Tail End of the Wind directly: “Are you a
‘fifty-cent gang member’? I don’t supervise the Internet supervisory
department. Do they really pay you?”

Tail End of the Wind replied: “I sometimes get paid when I
write some essays on subjects such as the electricity projects a Nujiang.
But the amounts are not much. We are expressing our personal views in those
essays but this is about using our influence on the Internet. This is not a
big issue. The fifty-cent gang members are singing praises most of the
time. The two of us severely criticize the government. It is very easy to
retrieve what we wrote on the Internet.”

“Actually, Bian Min and I have very advantageous identities.
Both of us are actually freelancers. Although we have worked in the media
industry before, we were only temporary contract workers. Up to now, I
still don’t any social security pension and medical insurance. I encourage
netizens to look up my social security information. This is no secret and
very easy to find. This proves that we are independent people.”

Our reporter asked Wu Hao specifically about the Internet
suspicions about the “fifty-cent gang.” Wu Hao said: “Are there fifty-ceng
gangs in Yunnan? That is the question that you are concerned, and it is
also a question that I am concerned with as well. People can check my QQ
record. I specifically asked the Internet supervisory department director:
Is Tail End of the Wind one of you ‘fifty-cent gang member’? Do you pay
them? The director said that the concept does not even exist in Yunnan.
The government does not pay netziens either. In practice, when their
Internet supervisory department has to cope with certain public opinion
crisis and need to collect some essays, they will offer some compensation in
accordance with copyright laws. But these people are not ‘fifty-cent gang
members’ who are paid on a regular basis.”

After the online interview was over, Wu Hao told the reporter
that the netizen investigative committee was an experiment by the Yunnan
government to create a “sunshine” government. He also said that the Yunnan
government had absorbed rich experiences from the handling of the Menglian
incident, which was a breakthrough in terms of being open and transparent
about a mass incident.

On July 19 last year, there was a violent incident in the
Menglian minority autonomous areas in Yunnan province. The public security
personnel on duty were assaulted by several hundred people. During the
incident, the militia police were forced to employ anti-riot tactics that
led to casualties. An investigation afterwards came to this conclusion: the
local government mishandled the situation and served the local bosses’
interests.

At the time of the incident, Wu Hao was still a reporter for
the Xinhua agency. He told the reporter that Xinhua had contacted the
relevant departments in order to publish the exclusive breaking news
stories. Wu Hao was also part of the investigative team as a member of the
media. “As a team worker, I personally spoke to the representatives of the
rubber farmers.” He recalled.

Through a Baidu search, this reporter was able to retrieve
many articles written by the Xinhua reporter Wu Hao. These articles had
innovative angles, progressive ideas and rich contents. They represented a
sharp break from the past “official reports.”

For example, the article dated July 28 cited Yunnan
provincial party deputy secretary Li Jiheng: “When nobody listens to what
they say, nobody follows what they do and the masses take out machetes
instead, then these cadres might as well as jump into the river!” On
September 9, the title of the article was: “Yunnan reflects deeply on the
Menglian incident, police cadres are warned to ‘serve the people’ and not
‘service the bosses’.” The title of the September 18 article was: “Yunnan:
Strictly prohibited to label the complaining masses as ‘troublemakers’ or
other such titles.” These essays drew enthusiastic responses from netizens
and had the objective effect of improving the image of the government.

Wu Hao said that the handling of the Menglian incident was a
landmark in openness and transparency on the part of the Yunnan provincial
government. The conflicts were quickly resolved, without evolving into the
more violent Weng’an incident that occurred a month ago in Guizhou.

The proposal to form a netizen investigative team for the
“eluding the cat” incident was a continuation of the thinking used to handle
the Menglian incident. Wu Hao said that the local masses were calm during
the “eluding the cat” incident, which showed once again that openness and
transparency are the correct ways to deal with problems.

Baidu Search also brought back the last article that Wu Hao
wrote as a reporter. On October 31 last year, he wrote “Yunnan provincial
party committee bring up ‘bad things’ on the table for the people to see.”

Six days later, the Yunnan provincial party organizational
committee in charge of cadres announced that Wu Hao has been transferred
from being the deputy editor-in-chief of Xinhua’s Yunnan station to become
the provincial publicity department deputy director.

In discussing this job transfer, Wu Hao said: “I am known in
the media industry mostly for watchdog journalism and writing internal
reference reports” and “I have caused a lot of troubles for Yunnan.” He
said, “If the Yunnan government and party secretary were not open-minded, I
would not have gotten this job.”

But his appointment was controversial. Wu Hao said franly,
“Before I took over the job, I saw that some on the Internet said that it
was a good thing for a veteran news worker to assume this job because of the
familiarity. There are others who say that this may not be a good thing,
because an insider knows exactly where to strike when he is a supervisor.”

But he said that it was precisely because he was a reporter
that he realized that he must treat reporters well and open up the space and
policies for the information office.

He also told the reporter that he had not received any
pressure from his superiors after initiating the netizen investigative
committee. On the contrary, the pressure came from the self-doubts of the
netizens themselves. He said: “Our goal was to expand the rights of the
netizens, but the netizens doubt themselves. So I need to reconsider on the
basis of studying public opinion further whether the next step is to proceed
in even bigger steps, or to restore the original conditions, or to take
smaller, slower steps.”

The critical voices about the members of the investigative
team are concentrated at the Tianya Forum. A netizen provided a link
to the Cailong Forum that showed the investigative team leader "Tail End of
the Wind" wrote the <2007 Kunming Daily News Labor Union Working Plan>.
Furthermore, his real name Zhao Li was listed as a "publicity committee
member" in the Labor Union Committee.

Cailong Forum is part of Cailong Net, which is a portal
for the local party newspaper Kunming Daily. The netizens therefore
believed that "Tail End of the Wind" is part of the system and that would
cast doubts on the neutrality of the investigative activity.

Two days ago, "Tail End of the Wind" was selected as a
netizen member of the investigative team by the Yunnan party publicity
department. But before that, "Tail End of the Wind" was already a
local celebrity. On March 30, 2008, <New Life Daily> published a
report titled "The Most Controversial Internet Commentator" about him.
That essay ended this way: "The top local netizens rated him this way: he is
a unique and successful Yunnan case of an official Internet commentator, an
Internet writer and a netizen all mixed in one while still being somewhat
politically correct."

The writer of that article is Wen Xing, who is also a
member of the "Eluding the Cat" investigative team.

Netizens found this article on Wen Xing's blog. This
proved that these two people have made contact before and therefore their
simultaneous selection implied manipulation.

The investigative team's deputy director Bian Min is
another target for the netizens. His real name is Dong Yubin and he is
the Internet commentary supervisor at <New Life Daily> website. In
another linked newspaper story, Bian Min and Tail End of the Wind appeared
together at the same <"Yunnan TV news reform> form on January 22, 2009 under
the identities of "enthusiastic audience members."

Netizens said Bian Min and Tail End of the Wind are
veteran actors who have performed together before.

The human flesh search has come up with the real
identities of all the netizen representatives on the investigation team.
They all have media working experiences and backgrounds, and therefore they
are regarded as people inside the system. Some netizens have labeled
them "fifty-cent gang members." In the virtual world of the Internet,
"fifty-cent gang member" is a derogatory term for full-time or part-time
commentators who speak out and lead Internet opinion while being employed
and directed by the government.

These accusations have caused doubts about the selection
processes by the Yunnan province party publicity department of the
investigative team members. At the time, the Yunnan province party
publicity department explained that the selection was done in two stages.
In the first stage, netizens without high name recognition on the Internet
were eliminated. In the second stage, the team members were randomly
selected from the remaining names.

Tail End of the Wind rejected these accusations. He
told the reporter that he had left his old job many years ago. He is
presently an Internet editor for Yunnan TV Net. Since he has not
signed a labor contract yet, he does not even have a social security account
number. So he could not possibly be a member of the "system." He
made a wager that if anyone can find out his social security account number,
then that person can take all the money away. He said that in
frustration.

As for the selection process, Tail End of the Wind has his
own speculation: "If the active netizens in Yunnan are not selected and only
a few netizens whom nobody has ever heard of are chosen instead, this
netizen investigative team would be subjected to even more doubts. The
netizens would say that these are sock-puppets from the publicity
department."

Tail End of the Wind said that the misgivings of the
netizens are attributed to the unsatisfactory findings in the investigative
report. He said that he wrote the part about the limitations of the
investigation. "When the investigative committee began to
work, everybody felt a certain embarrassment. Indeed, this investigative
committee was able to obtain a lot of information that was previously unknown
to the netizens and the media. But when we naively asked to meet the
suspects and see the surveillance tapes, we were turned down due to various
legal and administrative reasons. Then we suddenly recognized that while
netizens may be all-powerful on the Internet, they are very much helpless in
real life."

"This helplessness is the greatest feeling for me during
this investigation." Tail End of the Wind made this analogy -- a person
may be a leader, king or emperor in an online game, but in real life he may be
worried about how to find the money to get online.

The investigative team deputy director Bian Min shot back at
the critics. The soft version: "You doubt my character, but I doubt your
intelligence." The strong version: "As for those who criticize me
(especially those who make character assassinations because they know that I
could not get online while the investigation was going on), I express my
disgust and contempt."

The netizen team member Capable Mason received fewer
criticisms. He believed that this was because he is a Tianya Forum
administrator. He told the reporter: "There is only a small circle of
Internet writers in Yunnan, and people know each other. So it is not
unreasonable that many of them are chosen for the investigative team at the
same time."

Capable Mason said that Tail End of the Wind and Bian Min
are both responsible people who will not be easily exploited. "Every
person has his own background and experience, and will do things his own way."

As for how the team was formed, Capable Mason said that he
can understand the official attitude: "When they took the lead to proceed,
they must have considered whether it will go out of control."

Capable Mason considered the "Eluding the Cat" netizen
investigation to represent a positive official response to netizen opinon.
He thought that it was a good thing that such a step was made. "What we
need to do is to push them up the tree so that they can't even come down if
they wanted to. We will encourage them to keep doing this." This
is the advice from Capable Mason.

A newly hired reporter for the Shenzhen bureau of Southern
Metropolis Daily wrote a report about a city leader making dumplings with a
group of migrant laborers. The writing was very traditional and
mainstream in the manner of a party newspaper. In the final paragraph,
the reporter wrote: "Since they have never dined with such a senior-level
leader before, all the migrant workers were all very excited to see such a
great leader." The article was typeset. During the proof-reading
stage, the proof-reader was disgusted by the phrase "Since they have never
dined with such a senior-level leader before, all the migrant workers were
all very excited to see such a great leader" and so he circled it and made
the annotation: "Such arse-licking!" in order to express his anger.
Unfortunately, the type-setter did not realize what it meant and directly
put down "Such arse licking really makes me excited." The article was
then published (see MSN
link). Here is the photo of the print edition.

Netizen comment:

I cannot believe that the term "arse-licking" could
possibly appear in a report about the city leader. I thought that my
eyes must be tricking me because I have been visiting too many
pornographic websites! I cleared my eyes and looked again.
Those words were there in black and white!

How can this be? I was very worked up! How
can this be? How can such vulgar language appear in a report on the
city leader? Isn't this a public insult to our city leader! I
was not only worked up. I was angered! This is an insult to a
Shenzhen leader, as well as the people of Shenzhen! I cannot believe
such vulgar words can be used!

It is one thing to say that this was a typographic
mistake. That would be a technical error. But no Chinese
character input system could lead to a combination such as "arse licking"
by accident. Even if the reporter had mistyped, then the
proof-reader and the editor are guilty of negligence. So there
remains only one possibility -- someone did this deliberately to insult
our Shenzhen leaders.

I went to the Southern Metropolis Daily website and this
sentence has been deleted. But it can still be found in the Google
cache. At the oeeee.com website, all comments related to this
article are banned or deleted, so clearly they are aware of their mistake
but they do not have the courage to talk about it!

Southern Metropolis Daily reporter (anonymous):

Yuan must have had too much to drink. When he saw
the article had the phrase "She felt very excited to meet such a
high-level leader," he circled it and commented: "Such arse-licking!"

The editor Sun brought it to the typesetter and
instructed her to delete the sentence about the high-level leader.
The typesetter saw the comment from the proof-reader and asked the editor
whether that should be kept. She did not get a clear answer.
So she put it in and gave the page back to the editor for the second round
of proof-reading. Neither the editor nor the proof-reader detected
it. So this was how this magnificent phrase was signed off and
published.

"I am very excited" immediately became the most popular
phrase at the newspaper. Yuan read it carefully before he received
the penalty notice. He did not seem to mind and he just went and got
water to make tea. He was unaware that I was looking at him from
behind with admiration.

To be fair, there is only one truthful phrase in this
entire article.

A certain Shenzhen netizen felt that this was an insult
of the people of Shenzhen. I am not sure if this was sarcasm.
I personally think that it is an insult to the city of Shenzhen and its
people to have no real news-reporting newspaper in this city other than
Southern Metropolis Daily.

Two staff members at an outspoken mainland newspaper
have been punished after one described a migrant worker's flattering
speech to a high-ranking Shenzhen official as "a***-kissing" on a proof
copy that was mistakenly published. A report published in the Southern
Metropolis Daily on January 22 inadvertently included critical comments
about an activity celebrating the Lunar New Year involving migrant workers
and Li Yizhen, a member of Shenzhen Communist Party standing committee.
Few readers noticed the mistake until netizens wrote about it early this
month and the newspaper announced its punishment of two staff members
responsible for the error.

Proofreader Yuan Fang, who used the offending words to
describe the speech, was fined 1,000 yuan (HK$1,135), while subeditor Shen
Huawei, who failed to notice the error, was fined 500 yuan. It was an
error committed in the editing process rather than anything political, the
newspaper said.

A reporter with the newspaper close to the two said the
proofreader had written a critical comment in anger over the reporter's
decision to reproduce the migrant worker's flattering speech in full as it
went against the newspaper's policy. His comment had been incorporated by
mistake into the body of the article by a typist. "He highlighted the
speech and wrote, `How can they kiss a*** like that?' on the proof copy to
vent his anger. Later, a typist mistakenly typed his comment into the
story, while the subeditor failed to take the error out," the reporter
said.

The story was only published in the Guangzhou-based
newspaper's Shenzhen version. About 420,000 copies with the mistake were
sold in Shenzhen, while the newspaper's website immediately deleted the
phrase from its digital copy.

Privately, reporters praised the comment as brave and
truthful. "For Shenzhen and its people, it would be a true insult if there
wasn't a newspaper daring to tell the truth ... Actually, I admire the
proofreader," a reporter said.

On February 19, a netizen showed these photos of a young
girl climbing on the shoulders of a Chairman Mao statue to pose for photos.
The scene was the Windows of the World park in Changsha city, Hunan
province. Hunan Online reported: "This is shameful!" Other
netizens expressed anger too, and some even wanted to locate this "braindead
person" through the "human flesh search."

Yesterday a public notice was issued by the Yunnan
Provincial Publicity Department's Press and Publication Administration.

The injury and subsequent death of the Yuxi city Hongta
district Beicheng town young man Li Qiaoming in a detention center has
received broad media attention, especially on the Internet. The term
'eluding the cat' has become a hot Internet term
in a very short time. In order to satisfy the public's right to
know, the Yunnan provincial publicity departhment will form an
investigative committee with other relevant departments and proceed to
Kunming city Puning town on the morning of February 20 to find out the
truth about the incident. We are presently looking for four netizens
and other representatives from society to serve as members of the
committee. You can register between now and 8:00pm on the evening of
February 19, 2009." The notice also included a QQ account number and
a telephone phone number.

This piece of news was circulated quickly on the Internet.
Many netizens cursed that this piece of "fake news" for being so obviously
fake. Other netizens actually began to call.

"There is no truth that needs to be hidden. We will
show by actual action tomorrow that this is now a show." Yunnan
provincie publicity department press and publication administration deputy
director Gong Fei said that the main reason why netizens were suspicious
about the 'eluding the cat' incident was that the information had not been
open and transparent in a timely manner. This time, the relevant
departments (which includes the Yunnan provincial party public department,
the Yunnan provincial public security bureau, the Yunnan Political Legal
Committee and the Yunnan provincial procuratorate). Their public
invitation for netizens is the first time in the history of the Internet in
China.

Gong Fei said: "Before the public notice went out, we
spent the entire morning convincing the other departments to cooperate with
the media interviews. In the past, we did not respect the rules of
journalism sufficiently and we did not understand the new media well enough.
That was why we had a problem with public opinion. The purpose of this
investigation is to show that there are no hidden secrets in this case."
This decision had not been easy to make. "We basically discussed this
for one whole morning. But in the end, we thought that a news story
cannot just be 'blocked.' Besides this closed and opaque approach
violated the people's right to know and caused the public to misinterpret
the facts."

As of the cutoff time of 8:30pm, 510 netizens were able to
register successfully. 10 of them (an increase over the originally
planned 4 due to the enthusiastic response) will be selected to join the
investigative committee to go to the scene of the incident on the morning of
February 20.

The list of the investigative committee members includes:
four government officials (1 from the provincial political legal committee,
one from the provincial procuratorate and two from the provincial public
security bureau); three media representatives (Xinhua; Yunnan Information
Times; Yunnan Net); ten netizens and representatives from society (among the
8 already named, 5 are netizens, one is an insurance salesman, one is a
technology worker and another one is a art student).

Gong Fei said that the activity on February 20 does not
pre-suppose any desired outcome. The investigators will be able to
meet with the principals, visit the detention center and interview the key
participants and police investigators. "They can deduce the truth of
the matter through their own observations."

It is commonly believed that this statement was directed
at Yanhuang Chunqiu magazine. In the September 2008 issue of the
magazine, there had been a positive essay about former Secretary-General
Zhao Ziyang. This led to the so-called "recommendation to retire" from
the Central Publicity Department through the Ministry of Culture for the
magazine Du Daozheng. Du and the magazine declined to accept that
recommendation.

On December 24, 2008, the Chinese Communist Party Central
forwarded a document from the Central Publicity Department that stated:
"Persons who are current or retired Party or Government workers must not
become the leaders of newspapers and publications." But this was
considered to be impossible to implement. After all, the publishers
and chief editors of People's Daily and various provincial party newspapers
are also party workers and they would all have to quit too. Besides
what is a leader anyway? A publisher is a leader, but so is the
director of a small team of editors.

Recently, there have been more personnel changes at
Yanhuang Chunqiu. First of all, the legal representative has been
shifted from Du Daozheng to cnief editor Wu Si. But this is a regular
change that merely guarantees continuity of leadership. Du Daozheng
said during an interview: "I have not resigned as the publisher of Yanhuang
Chunqiu and I do not intend to do so voluntarily. We have been
publishing this magazine for 18 years. I had two roles: publisher and
legal representative. I am over 80 years old and this is too much of a
burden. The legal representative has a lot of deal with, including any
legal hassles."

Yanhuang Chunqiu hardly carries any advertisements.
In January 2009, it went beyond 100,000 copies in distribution for the first
time at 105,000. In February 2009, the circulation increased by 6,900
copies. In March 2009, the circulation increased by 8,900 copies.
Du Daozheng said that this showed that the readers like this magazine: "The
'recommendation to retire' in 2008 created a storm that was reported in Asia
Weekly and other media. The mainstream in Zhongnanhai are supportive,
loving and tolerant."

Even more interesting is this other piece of news buried
within the article: 10 more persons have been added to the original 33
persons on the editorial committee. So what? Except you have to
note some of the names: Zhang Yihe, Li Datong, ...

A 2'32" video clip on YouTube showed students engaged in a
brawl at the platform outside the mall in Oi Man Estate, Ho Min Tin
district, Kowloon, Hong Kong. About twenty to thirty people were
involved. The video clip was take by a camphone from some distance
away, so that it is not easy to identity the individuals. By the time
that the police arrived, everybody had left already. The police as
well as the newspapers are contacting every school in the district to see if
their students were involved. One set of students wore dark blue
blazers while the other set of students wore grey sweaters.

A Chinese woman who freaked out at Hong Kong's
international airport after missing her flight has hit the big time on
YouTube after her hysterics were filmed and uploaded to the video sharing
website. The middle-aged woman was seen charging at a security guard at the
departure gate, before screaming "aieyyahhhhh," at the top of her lungs in a
rant that lasts about three minutes.

The woman, sprawled on the ground, was seen wailing. An
elderly man travelling with her tried to pull her to her feet but she
shouted in Cantonese: "I want to go, I want to go."

Cathay Pacific said it had already closed the aircraft's
doors and had offloaded the woman's baggage, and so was unable to allow her
to board the flight to San Francisco. "Don't be so upset, don't be so
emotional," a male Cathay Pacific staff member is heard saying on the video.
Cathay Pacific said the incident occurred earlier this month, and the video
appeared to have been loaded onto YouTube late last week. By Monday, the
"woman going insane after missing her flight video" had over 400,000 hits.

In 2006, another sensational outburst by a stressed-out
Hong Kong man captured the imagination of many people in this fast-paced,
money-obsessed, Asian financial capital. The middle-aged man, who chastised
and swore at a youngster in a six-minute-long diatribe aboard a double
decker bus, was dubbed "Bus-Uncle" and a video of the incident received
close to two million hits. His quote "I have pressure, you have pressure"
became a catch-phrase and sparked navel-gazing at the pressure that many
over-worked Hong Kong citizens suffer.

As for the woman at the airport, Cathay Pacific said it
put her and her two travel companions on a later flight to Los Angeles, at
no extra cost.

... Reuters also noticed this Internet hit and issued a
special report. They described the person as "a Chinese woman" because
she spoke fluent Cantonese. Thus, she could be a mainlander from
Guangdong province, or a Hong Kong resident, or a Macau resident, or an
overseas Chinese holding a passport from southeast Asia or some other
country. But the mainland websites have all used "female mainlander"
as their story title. This is strange because the term "Chinese woman"
is used to describe Chinese women from all those places.

Once the title says "female mainlander," the story becomes
a sensitive hot topic as to whether this type of behavior is a loss of face
for the Chinese people. Some people think that it was a loss of face
to the Chinese people by posting such a video clip on the Internet.
More people talked about the quality of the Chinese people as a whole.
But after watching this three minute plus video, I found all these
discussions very weird: This is an individual case which can happen anywhere
any day. But because of technological progress, this woman's behavior
was recorded and posted on the Internet which amplified its reach.

The Reuters report also mentioned the case of Bus Uncle in
Hong Kong. There are some similarities between the two, because both
persons were emotionally out of control. Perhaps it is as Bus Uncle
said, "You have pressure, I have pressure."

Similarly, people have pressure everywhere. There is
no national boundary for people who lose emotional control or deliberately
seek trouble. There is no need to elevate this into a discussion of
the quality of the Chinese people.

Many people like to use the actions of an individual to
reflect on a larger group. I keep hearing people say whether they like or
dislike the people in a certain place. Actually, that place has plenty
of people living there. It does not matter how many of them you have
met, because that number cannot represent everybody who lives there.

If someday people will no longer say "I don't like place
XX" or "I don't like the people in place XX" and we can just laugh off a
video like this one, it will mean that we have broadened our knowledge and
seen more things.

With the flagging economy, no one's job is secure, not
even for a mistress. A Qingdao newspaper reported that a Qingdao businessman
facing money problems decided to “fire” four out of his five mistresses last
December.

According to the paper the man, surnamed Fan, was
“inspired by those talent challenge programs he saw on TV”, and arranged
similar competitions for his five mistresses. Only the top winner would
remain Fan's mistress and enjoy a monthly income of US$800 and an apartment.
The five women then presented themselves in front of a professional model
trainer, gave speeches, sang songs and even gulped down liquor to show their
drinking capacity.

All went as Fan planned until one of the women turned out
to be a very bad loser. Fan's first mistress, Yu, came from rural Shanxi,
and being the least educated among the five had trouble finding another job
to support herself. Determined to take revenge, she invited Fan and the
other four women on a road trip and drove off a cliff on the way. Yu died
but the others survived.

(New
York Daily News) Spurned mistress drives Chinese businessman,
other women off cliff; lost contest for his love. Olivia Smith.
February 17, 2009.

He drove her to revenge, so she drove him off a cliff.

The mistress of a married Chinese businessman whose lover
spurned her due to the economic downturn plotted to get back at her lover
and his four other paid paramours. The 29-year-old woman, identified as Yu,
drove the man and four other kept women off a mountian precipice after the
double sting of losing her income and getting dumped.

Identified as Yu, the woman was the first to be cast out
from the married businessman's harem of five mistresses after he held a
secret competition to decide which one of them to keep. After realizing he
needed to pare down to just one lover, the entrepreneur, identified as Fan,
hired an instructor from a modeling agency to judge which mistress would
stay on.

The women were assessed on looks, singing ability, and how
much alcohol they could hold, according to CNN.com. The women all had their
rent paid and received a monthly allowance of around $730 from Fan.

After Yu was eliminated in the first round of the
competition because of her looks, she decided to get back at Fan and the
four other women vying for his money and affections. She arranged a group
sightseeing tour, telling the others it was a farewell outing before she
returned to her home province. She then piloted the car over a cliff on a
winding road, killing herself and injuring the others. Police in China
initially thought the Dec. 6 crash was an accident, but learned of the
contest in a letter Yu had written before the fateful trip.

Fan, whose age and line of work remain a mystery, paid
Yu's family $84,744 as compensation for her death. Yu had been a waitress
when the two met at the restaurant where she worked in the coastal city of
Qingdao in 2000, according to CNN. The other mistresses have all left him,
and so has his wife.

I am a citizen of Lushan city (Qingdao). Over here,
we have a newspaper known as the Peninsula Metropolis Daily. On
February 15, the newspaper published the completely fabricated story
entitled <Troubled boss asked his five mistresses to PK>. I have lived
in Lushan for twenty years, and I have never heard that there is a place
named Longwang Temple. Why does the reporter from Peninsula Metropolis Daily
want to fabricate a story to smear Lushan and its people as well as Qingdao?
Peninsula Metropolis Daily is a bitch!

The second paragraph of the story calls this an accident.
But the story is clearly about the intentional murder of five persons.
Why would the police characterize this as an accident in the incident
report? Are the Lushan police stupid, or is Peninsula Metropolis a
bitch for not even seeing this contradiction?

[in translation]

On February 15, our newspaper published an articled titled
<Troubled boss forced his five mistresses to PK> on page A3.
Afterwards, an investigation showed that our reporter Yi Lei had plagiarized
the story <One dead, five wounded! 'Playboy boss' emergency staff reduction
among his mistresses led to tragedy> in the February 2009 issue of Ziyin
magazine. Our reporter had violated the relevant regulations for our
editorial team, damaged the credibility of our newspaper and misled the mass
of readers. Our newspaper's editorial disciplinary committee has met
and arrived at the decision to dismiss the reporter Yi Lei. Effective
immediately today, Yi Lei shall not conduct any news gathering as a
Peninsula Metropolis Daily reporter ...

The
General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ)
prohibited Mengniu Dairy Group from using two chemical additives in its
Telunsu brand, causing the company’s stock (HKSE: 02319) to plummet 12
percent on February 11. Mengniu later stated that Telunsu milk contained the
same amount of the two chemicals – osteobast milk protein (OMP) and IGF-1 –
as what occurs naturally in regular milk.

The Inner
Mongolia-based company pointed to an investigation that the Inner Mongolia
Quality Supervision Bureau conducted in response to AQSIQ’s statement, which
found that Mengniu did not add IGF-1 to Telunsu milk. This, however,
contradicts the patent application that Mengniu submitted to the State
Intellectual Property Office in February 2006. Mengniu said that OMP is
known as “milk basic protein” in
Japan and the
U.S., and has been
approved by
U.S. and
New Zealand
authorities, although it has yet to be approved by Chinese authorities.

OMP,
developed by Mengniu and another research institution, is a protein that
exists naturally in small quantities in milk. According to Mengniu’s
website, it can help increase bone density and promote bone regeneration.
IGF-1 is a hormone that has the same function as insulin, and is active in
cell growth, cell differentiation and DNA synthesis for almost all cells in
the human body, according to an independent researcher.

Host: This is an embarrassing moment.
Recently, there has been some official statements about Mengniu's Telunsu
milk that contained both good and bad news. But netizens can observe
that the previous challenges to Mengniu's Telunsu milk at the major Internet
portals in China are being deleted. Even more miraculously, the four
major portals Sina.com, NetEase.com, QQ.com and iFeng.com all produced
almost completely identical special news sections with positive spin about
Mengniu complemented by positive comments.

We also heard that a certain website was
about to interview Fang Zhouzi. But suddenly they said that there was
an equipment malfunction and the interview was canceled. Fang Zhouzi
went to the website and found out that all the previous negative comments
made by himself and others have been deleted and replaced by a special
Mengniu Telunsu promotion section. An editor at one of the websites
that is publishing these advertisements told me that this was the single
most shameful episode in the history of the Internet in China. I would
like to ask Teacher Fang Zhouzi whether he has any special feelings as one
of the first scholars to cast doubt on the Mengniu Telunsu milk and also as
someone who has been involved in exposing academic fraud for so many years.

Fang: What we used to do is mostly within academics
without a lot of connection to the general public. Most people don't
care about it that much, even though some of it is tied win with commercial
fraud. This Mengniu Telunsu affair is unusual in that most ordinary
people will care. This affair is also somewhat different. We
should begin by telling you what happened two years ago when we began to
expose them. But it took two years before the media began to report on
this affair. There have also been some pressure on the websites which
deleted some of the posts.

This affair involves certain interests. There is a
well-known corporation with lots of capital. This affair could cause
them a lot of damage. Therefore, they used various public relations
methods to suppress the voices that could expose them, including placing
propaganda at the major portals. These are the standard techniques
that certain corporations use to protect their reputation.

Different websites have different ways of dealing with
this type of situation. As mentioned before, the portals ran identical
propaganda on behalf of Mengniu Telunsu. But at the same time, some of
them will also publish articles that are critical about Telunsu.
Although such websites took money, we can still say whatever we want.
I think that is acceptable. Then there are other websites which
suppress the critical voices by not highlighting on the news page or even
deleting those posts. I think that is is terrible to delete the
previous essays after the Mengniu Telunsu propaganda page was posted.

One acceptable way is for the website editors to allow the
public to listen to the voices from both sides. I am not saing that we
should not listen to Mengniu's defense of itself. That can be done,
and it does not matter. Both sides should be able to debate each other
and the public can decide which side is telling the truth. But certain
websites are publishing propaganda while not permitting any negative
comments on Mengniu Telunsu. This is a problem in professional ethics.

Host: Can you brief recount for the
netizens how you began to have doubts about Mengniu Telunsu. Have
Mengniu or the relevant government departments ever made direct contact with
you?

Fang: They had tried to contact me. I first began to
have doubts about Telunsu milk in March 2007. It was an accident.
At a supermarket in Beijing, there was a promotion on Telunsu milk with a
sign from the State Public Health and Development Research Centre, which
claimed to have validated the functions of OMP (osteoblast milk protein)
milk. I was perplexed because I have never heard that milk contains
any miraculous substance. Most people drink milk for the sake of their
bones, or because milk contains high levels of calcium. They do not
drink milk for the protein. Therefore I wondered about Mengniu.
By coincidence, I received a letter from a middle school student in Beijing
who had received a box of Mengniu Telunsu milk as a Chinese Lunar Year
present. He was perplexed because OMP is claimed to be a protein that
can be directly absorbed by the body whereas the middle school biology
textbooks seemed to say that this is not how proteins are used. He
asked me what I thought. I consulted all the medical biology
references and could not find anything article on OMP.

If you discover a new protein, you should first publish
the findings and then you can sell it. You should not be selling it
immediately to consumers. At the time, I had just published a new book
about fraudulent food items and I was doing press conferences, forums and
discussion panels in conjunction with the book. At these meetings, I
used Telunsu as an example of fraudulent propaganda that comes from a
brand-name corporations. The reporters were interested in this
subject, so they came to interview me. But they also interviewed
Mengniu. So this was how Mengniu learned that I have doubts about
their products. At the time, the product had been on the market for
one year.

Mengniu attempted to contact me through various channels.
They said that they wanted to clear up the misnderstanding. I said
that there is no misunderstanding here. If you have different ideas
from mine, you should have your experts talk to me in a public setting.
But they didn't want to do that. So they used public relations method
to suppress those reports. None of those news reports were published.
If some report managed to slip into the Internet, it was quickly deleted.
This was the first time that I saw that they have very powerful public
relations skills. In like manner, they are getting the websites to
propagandize for them now.

...

Host: Sanlu has fallen. Some people
say that Mengniu is a minority ethnic enterprise and should be protected.
Therefore, we should not be going after them. What do you think?

Fang: Mengniu is registered in the Cayman Islands. I
don't think that it is any minority ethnic enterprise. If it is a
minority ethnic enterprise, it should not be deceiving the people. We
cannot tolerate their deception just because they are a minority ethnic
enterprise. That would be a very narrow nationalist sentiment. I
don't think that the common consumer would be so stupid as to drink their
fraudulent milk just because they are a minority ethnic enterprise.

Last time when the young girl Li Shufen drowned in Weng'an,
the police report mentioned "doing push-ups" which made the term red-hot on
the Internet. This time when the young Yunnan man Li Qiaoming
expired in a detention center, the police report said that he ran into a
wall when he tried to "elude a cat." Very quickly, "eluding the cat"
is now a red-hot term on the Internet. Netizens discussed the dangers
involved in the game of "eluding the cat" and made large numbers of related
posts.

According to <Yunnan Information News>, 24-year-old Yuxi
Beicheng town male resident Li Qiaoming was arrested for illegally cutting
down trees. On January 30, he was sent to the detention center.
On February 8, he was taken to the hospital on account of an injury.
Four days later he died. The cause of death was "severe brain injury."

The explanation from the Puning county public security
bureau was that Li Qiaoming was injured while playing the game of "eluding
the cat" with other prisoners. He had been kicked and beaten by other
prisoners and accidentally hit a wall. Another local newspaper
reported that Li Qiaoming was blindfolded while he played "eluding the cat"
and "accidentally got hurt when he ran into the wall.

This news item drew more than 35,000 comments at QQ.com,
most of which were about the subject of "eluding the cat."

The netizen Xu Hui wrote a blog entitled <The definition
of 'eluding the cat'>: "Eluding the cat" means hide-and-seek. In
northern China, it is known as "hiding the cat." Whether it is
"eluding" or "hiding," this game is clearly derived from the cat-and-mouse
game. With the departure of a young, healthy life, the 'eluding the
kidden' game showed the human relationships inside the Puning detention
center as well as proving a fact -- games can kill people."

"I thought that he might have killed himself when he was
caught committing a crime. I never thought that he died while playing
'eluding the cat!' This goes far beyond my imagination!"
Although nobody did any push-ups during the 'eluding the cat' game, someone
died nevertheless! Are there any safe games or physical exercise left
under the sun?"

...

According to the report in <Yunnan Information Times>, the
police disclosed on the evening of February 12th the latest development in
their investigation: "The deceased caught the fellow prisoner named Pu
during the 'elude the cat' game. Pu was unhappy and the two man had a
dispute. During the argument, Pu kicked the deceased once and then
punched him on the head once. The deceased lost his balance and fell
backwards, whereupon his head hit the sharp corner formed by the wall and
the door. This was how the deceased got injured."

The netizen 'cos222' said that the 'eluding the cat'
explanation was so absurd that it must be true. There was no reason
for the police to create problems for themselves. While the police
continue their investigation, the "eluding the cat" term continues to
propagate on the Internet and may have a chance to become another popular
saying on the Chinese Internet in 2009.

First, there was this Internet post titled <Pretty girls
toasting wine! Photos from the banquet for a government inspection team>
with these photos.

Shanghai city Qingpu district Party/Goverment Team of
Representatives
Comes to Luchun on inspection trip and forum meeting

For effect, a few more photos alleged to be common folks
from the impoverished Luchun county are shown for comparison:

As you might expect, such a post on the Internet is bound to
draw brick-throwing, desk-pounding and verbal abuses from the netizens.
Next comes the inevitable "human flesh searches" on those government officials
present in the photos.

On February 13, the Luchun county government publicity
department issued an explanation: The first photo and the next three photos
came from two separate events. Here are the other photos for the first
event involving the people who attended the forum. As for the drinking
photos, it involved eight teachers who were sent from outside to teach at the
Number Two Secondary School in Luchun County and were sent off in a farewell
party.

See? The room setting is different, the drinkers were
different and there are nine girls wearing ethnic costumes instead of six
girls wearing evening gowns! That is supposed to clear everything up.
Or maybe not ... as in, Are the taxpayers paying for two parties instead of
just one?

More than 100 rights activists
took to the street yesterday, protesting against opposition by religious
groups to plans to extend protection under the anti-family-violence law to
same-sex couples. They called it an attempt to establish a "religious
hegemony" and accused proponents of trying to ram their "conservative"
standards down other people's throats.

Chanting slogans, the protesters waved banners that read
"Protect Civil Liberty" as they marched to the office of the Society for
Truth and Light in Prince Edward. The society's stated mission is to address
social ethics, media behaviour and sexual culture in Hong Kong from a
Christian point of view. But it is often mocked as a "moral Taleban" for its
conservative stance.

The Concern Group Against Religious Hegemony, which led
yesterday's march, said gay couples should be protected under the Domestic
Violence Ordinance. "We are not saying that we support gay marriage," said
spokeswoman Virginia Yue. "That is another issue. But same-sex cohabitants'
rights should not be excluded from the law just because some religious
groups do not accept gay culture."

The Domestic Violence Ordinance, enacted in 1986, enables
a party to a marriage, or someone cohabiting with a member of the opposite
sex, to seek a court injunction to prevent their partner abusing them. There
was cross-party support in the legislature for an amendment, to include
same-sex couples, until Democratic Party legislator Wong Sing-chi, a
Christian, departed from his party's line and said he would vote against the
amendment on religious grounds. Both Catholic and Protestant churches have
since led the opposition to extending coverage of the law to same-sex
cohabitants.

The Internet group "Religious Hegemony Concern Action"
organized a demonstration march yesterday to protest against certain
religious persons and Legislative Councilors who expressed prejudicial
remarks that say that the amendment of the Domestic Violence Ordinance is an
endorsement of homosexuality.

More than 100 people attended the march under the
them "Defend the social values of citizens and opposing right-wing religious
hegemony. The convenor Chun Heifai said that they are not homosexuals
but they are dissatisfied with the small number of religious persons and the
True Light Society for opposing the amendment to the Domestic Violence
Ordinance, depriving homosexuals of their civil rights and imposing their
religious values onto others. The demonstrators marched to protest in
front of a Christian church and the True Light Society. They left blue
ribbons outside the door.

The group Education Convergence said that if the
government wants to protect homosexuals who live together, it ought to have
some other legislation. The Hong Kong Sex Culture Society pointed out
that there is no factual basis for the assertion of "right-wing religious
hegemony" and this was just a weapon to label and attack people who hold
different opinions.

According to the Religious Hegemony Concern Group convenor
Chun Heifai, Reverend Patrick So of the Yanfook Church upset people by
saying that the amendment of the Domestic Violence Ordinance is protecting
homosexuals. Chun also criticized the conservative religious groups
for using "cell division" to offer repeated opinions in the name of various
groups and persons to the Legislative Council to tighten the Control of
Indecent and Obscene Articles Ordinance, which is the same as bearing false
testimony. He said that these religious Taliban are giving partial
interpretations of the Bible and insists on having their views accepted to
the exclusion of all dissident voices.

Another convenor named Democratic Party Legislative
Councilor Wong Sing-chi for "using the resources of the Democratic Party to
run in the election and then working for religious groups after being
elected." Hong Kong Young Students Association chairman Lee Cheung-yin
pointed out that the Carmel Holy Word Secondary School had earlier mobilized
the parents of their students to write a letter each to demand the
tightening of the Control of Indecent and Obscene Articles Ordinance.
He said that the religious education groups were hijacking civic education
and fabricating fake public opinion.

"Fantasizing the Control of Indecent and Obscene Articles
Ordinance can educate your children for you; right-wing logic is
impractical." The demonstrators kept chanting this slogan during the
march. At the Legislative Council hearing, parents and education
groups complained that they are unable to prevent their children and
students from coming into contact with harmful information on the Internet
and therefore the Legislative Council must force the Internet service
providers to use filtering software to block pornographic information.
A parent said: "I have to earn a living. I don't have time to educate
my children."

The demonstrators gathered yesterday at 11:30am at the
Cheung Sha Wan Parth in Lai Chi Kok district. They held an assembly
first to denounce the conservative religious groups for attempting to impose
their personal religious beliefs and values onto others in recent years.
The demonstrators are mostly young people who came together through Facebook
and the Hong Kong Golden Forum.

The demonstrators then set out to the Yanfook Church while
singing the group Beyond's song <The Glorious Years>. They stood
outside the church to protest silently. The church sent out about
twenty security guards and congregation members to monitor the
demonstrators. The demonstrators then went to the True Light Society
office on Prince Edward Road before disbanding peacefully at 1:25pm.

According to the organizers, there was as many 1,200
persons in the march. The reporter counted about 500 demonstrators.
Chun Heifai said that he is planning a demonstration at the Legislative
Council to protest against "collusion between politicians and religious
groups."

This demonstration was organized by the Religious Hegemony
Concern Action, the Civic Social Web and the Hong Kong Young Students
Association. There are relatively unknown groups. But a Facebook
account was set up on January 28 to call for this demosntration, and 2,059
persons signed up by February 10. In the end, 500 people showed up to
march. Christians have also established a "Grand Alliance to support
freedom of religion and speech" Facebook group to counter-attack, but only
154 persons signed up.

In the history of religion in Hong Kong, the date Feburary
15, 2009 will be remembered.

On that day, several hundred citizens (mostly netizens)
marched in the streets to "support the values of civic society and oppose
right-wing religious hegemony."

As an ordinary citizen and as an ordinary participant, let
me first of all sincerely thank the persons who organized the demonstration
march as well as the other volunteers. They turned a dream into
reality and a call into an action. As I walked along the Cheung Sha
Wan Path down to the Flower Market, I was indescribably moved: A group of
people with different faiths, different sexual tendencies, different
political stances, different education and backgrounds can come together for
the same feelings (or perhaps the same anger) in a peaceful, rational and
restrained manner.

In fact, all the concerns before the march about any
violence were redundant. The marchers may have occasionally yelled out
aloud but it did not bother me. Overall, the demonstrators were very
disciplined and self-restrained. In front of Yanfook Church, everybody
chose to hold a silent protest and to tie blue ribbons on the barriers
outside the church. Dr. Chen's reading of "Ask less for love from
others, but give all your love out instead" from St. Francis' Prayers was
supported and approved.

I saw that the Christians were able to read from the Bible
as they marched, I saw that the Hong Kong Golden Forum friends could hold up
their banners, I saw that gays could hold their hands together without fear,
and I saw that students could protest aloud about the fake responses [that
their school organized] as well as articulate their vision for education.
We came together by respecting each other. We may have argued over the
Internet over our views about religion, but once out in the streets, the
rationality, restraint and tolerance were admirable and touching.

What about the "yelling"? At worst, I heard a couple
of chants like "True Light Society eat shit" or "Leung Mei-fun eat banana."
I also heard people raise a banner and demand an apology from the Reverend
Patrick So. I did not hear any demonstrator say anything against
Christians in general. They were only asking that even faith must
include rational consideration.

I estimated that more than 400 people marched.
Although there were some social activists there, the group consisted mostly
of students and netizens. The overall arrangement, process and
discipline of the organizers were excellent and professional.

I have a lot of feelings and ideas about the movement.
But on this evening, I would like to tell the organizers and volunteers:
"Thank you." Really, even though we hold different ideas, beliefs and
stances, I have give you a heartfelt thanks.

Those who know me know that I rarely praise or thank
people.

[030] The Suzhou
University Incident (02/16/2009) At first, there were these
photos for which the Chinese citizens and police were chastised for being
indifferent to human life. A man is lying on the ground bleeding in his
head, but the police stand away and people just step around and glance at him
indifferently. Oh, what kind of world are we living in?

The man is a thief from Xinjiang who was working with four
or five others. They were caught in the act by the victim and other
citizens who corralled them. This man took out a knife and slashed his
head twice to cause severe bleeding. It is supposedly typical for
Xinjiang thieves to use self-mutilation to scare off anyone who apprehended
them in the act because people don't want this kind of trouble.

It is not that people don't want to help the man.
After he slashed himself, he yelled out that he has AIDS. So the
militia policeman can only stand by him and wait for the ambulance to
arrive. The man was eventually taken to a hospital which can handle
infectious diseases. It is supposedly typical for Xinjiang thieves to
use needles (instead of knives or daggers) to threaten people with AIDS
infection.

The man did not die at the scene. The wound was
superficial. He is a healthy young man and the loss of his amount of
blood (less than 2,000 ml) should not result in death.

This case does not mean that Suzhou is going out of
control. It represents a very touchy problem about thieves, minority
citizens and AIDS. When all three are present, it is not so simple
anymore.

Yesterday between 2pm and 4pm, there was a small gathering
at the Unidirectional Street Bookstore for people to meet with the writer Xu
Lai, who is better known as the blogger behind Pro States In Flames.
According to an attendee, "About 2pm, Xu Lai entered and spoke to the master
of ceremony. He then explained his 'petit interests' and his
understanding about notes-like novels to the attendees. Somehow it was
very noisy on the first floor and they wouldn't stop in spite of pleas.
Xu Lai answered a number of questions, mainly about this book <Imaginary
Animals> but also his comparison with other post-80 writers, his blog and
his ideals. He humbly said that he does not know how to speak, and he
was very evasive on the more sensitive issues. So there was not the
kind of revelations that we expected. It was mostly about his literary
experiences and creative ideas."

21st Century Economic Report reporter Guo Jianlong said
that he was on the first floor at the time of the incident while Xu Lai was
talking to someone on the second floor. After a while, Guo noticed a
commotion and then he spotted Xu holding his stomach and leaning against the
wall on the stairwell of the second floor. According to Xu Lai's wife,
two men seized Xu Lai after the meeting and took him into the men's
restroom. She sensed that something was wrong and forced her way in.
She saw two men, one holding a kitchen knife and the other holding a dagger.
The one with the kitchen knife was ready to hack Xu's hand. When
discovered, the two men fled out of the bookstore and headed towards
Chang'an Street. Somebody tried to pursue them but did not succeed.
People at the scene had taken photos of the two perpetrators, and there are
also surveillance camera on the street.

At 4:55pm, the netizen Zola flashed the news on twitter: "Gu
Jianlong called: Qian Liexian is lying on the ground holding his stomach.
I asked them to help him stop the bleeding, stay calm and relax his
breathing in order to increase his chances of survival." "There is no
danger of losing his life. He was stabbed just once. Guo
Jianlong and Xu Lai's wife are going along to the hospital. The wound
is about the size of a palm. There had been quite a bit of bleeding.
He is emotionally stable and is in the process of going to the hospital."

In a photo from another famous blogger Hecaitou, Xu Lai is
seen lying on the ground and holding his stomach. At the time, someone
heard the perpetrator tell Xu Lai: "You know better not to offend people the
next time?" Hecaitou said that Xu Lai is a low-keyed person and just a
science reporter who couldn't possibly have offended others in his work.
But his blog has a lot of contents that are somewhat provocative.
Therefore the enmity may have come from his blog.

In the comments to this news item on his blog,
there is this sentence:

"Comrades, netizens, such a despicable
trick can not stop the progress of Chinese people towards freedom and
democracy, because this is the tide of history, so there is no force to
stop!"

[028] Our Country Must
Not Have A Western-Style Multi-Party System (02/15/2009) (People.com.cn)

The multi-party political party system is an important
element of the political system of western capitalism. Most western
capitalist countries have two or more capitalist parties which change
rulership through elections. On the surface, this seems to realize a
democratic system which reflects the choice of the people. In
practice, this does not change the fact that the ruling capitalist groups of
the capitalist class control the political power in western capitalist
countries.

Under the western multi-party system, private capital
continues to control public power. The western multi-party system is a
political system within the western capitalistic system. Economics is
the basis of political power, and politics reveals itself in the economics.
The basic economic and property relationships of the capitalist system are
determined and allocated through political power. Those classes and
groups that control more economic resources can expand their own interests.

Engels once said: "The power of the capitalist class is
completely determined by money. In order to procure the political
power, they must make money the sole basis for power." Therefore,
money is the root of all the evils in western political systems. Those
capitalist groups which hold huge amounts of wealth have turned the
multi-party elections in western capitalist countries into a political
marketing campaign according to marketing rules. Through controlling
the election rules and the media coverage and hyping, they control the
information that the public receives and they affect public opinion and
perceptions so as to influence voting choices in order to achieve final
victory.

According to the United States Electoral Commission report
on December 14, 2008, it costs USD 2.51 million on the average to run for a
US Congress seat with the highest figure being USD 31.48 million; it costs
USD 5.1 million on the average to run for a US Senate seat with the highest
figure being 9.04 million. How can anyone compete unless they have the
financial support of large capitalist groups? Under the western
capitalist system, any ruling political party must represent certain
capitalist classes and interests groups which will control the state
political power.

A multi-party system will also tend to increase social
divisiveness and that works against social harmony and stability. When
multiple parties compete against each other, they must win over voters.
The first step in gaining voters is to publicly divide the voters according
to their interests and then render the different groups antagonistic in
order to build the separate bases for the parties. Under a multi-party
system, each party will regard their basic and sole goal as seizing
political power. During the political power struggle, they will use
any and every means to attack each other. The result is a political
system in which social divisions are magnified and deepened. This flaw
is especially observable during the transition of the western capitalist
nations into industrialized countries.

It is noteworthy that the western countries insist on
exporting the multi-party "democratic systems" to the developing countries.
There were serious consequences afterwards. Those countries which were
in the process of becoming developed and modernized became entrapped in long
lasting social strife that ended in civil war and economic disaster.
The reason why this happened was that these countries were facing many
conflicts as they developed and modernized, and the introduction of a
western multi-party system only served as to escalate those conflicts.
This is one of the most significant reasons why there is so much long
lasting instability in developing countries.

China cannot afford to have a western multi-party system.
It must follow a path of development with unique Chinese socialist
characteristics. At the present stage, China is situated in a critical
stage between realizing a socialistic modernization and a Chinese
renaissance. China is also situated in the highlighted stage of the
"golden era" of development and social conflicts. During this stage,
the various internal conflicts among the people appear in mass numbers as
developments occurs rapidly.

At the moment, the most significant interest of the
Chinese people is to remain united, seize the opportunity and continue to
develop. As such, the interest divergences and conflicts must be kept
at a minimum so as not to impact the overall situation.

Under such circumstances, we cannot have a western style
multi-party system. We cannot the follow the errant path of certain
developing countries because it only leads to chaos and disaster.
China needs to set out from its own national situation, absorb the
experiences of the other nations of the world and blaze its own path of
political development -- the path of political development based upon
socialism with unique Chinese characteristics.

A war of words has been raging for the past 10 days over
the coverage of the PCCW privatisation debacle by the Hong Kong Economic
Journal, both of which are owned by Richard Li Tzar-kai. In the run-up
to last week's eventful shareholders' meeting, the paper chose not to carry
any reports about the alleged vote-rigging. The day after, it ran a report
of what happened at the meeting, including angry shareholders' comments, but
none of the paper's columnists commented on the report.

This sparked a commentator from the rival Hong Kong
Economic Times to express her disappointment that the Journal's chief
columnist, Joseph Lian, had opted to write about his English learning
experiences rather than adding his voice to one of the city's most
controversial stories.

Lian hit back in yesterday's paper, saying he preferred to
pick subjects with government administration and policy implications such as
whether Citic Pacific (SEHK: 0267) group managing director Henry Fan
Hung-ling should remain on the Executive Council after the foreign currency
accumulator losses, or how responsible the regulators were in the Lehman
Brothers minibonds scandal. The PCCW privatisation was more a market matter
between the majority and minority shareholders, he said. However, he did
concede: "Vote-rigging is a dirty behaviour. If there was sufficient
evidence to prove that Richard Li or any other PCCW executives were
involved, then they would be deemed as bad as Bernard Madoff."

Funnily enough, alongside Lian's column were two
commentary pieces very critical of PCCW's role in the affair.

Just before the privatization of PCCW, certain Fortis
insurance decided to purchase the minimum 1,000 share each and registered
themselves as shareholders. David Webb filed a lawsuit against this
actoin. On January 1 (Saturday), this was the Ming Pao front page
story. But on that day, Hong Kong Economic Journal mentioned nary a
word about this happening. It is not known whether the Hong Kong
Economic Journal deliberately kept silent for an esteemed person.

On Feburary 2 (Monday), there was still no report at all
about one-hand-per-person story in the Hong Kong Economic Journal.
Meanwhile, in the bottom right corner on Page 3, there was a story entitled
<Two investment fund advisors changed their minds and now supports the
privatization of PCCW>.

The two investment fund advisors are ISS and Glass Lewis.
The fact that they changed their minds is not news, because it was broadly
publicized around January 20. So this was a story using something that
happened in the Year of the Rat to clear the path for PCCW boss
Richard Li while burying the real news story at the time. The second
paragraph of this report was:

Just before the vote, there was talk that someone was
intentionally "buying votes." On January 29, it was said that more
than 300 small shareholders suddenly appeared on the list of registered
PCCW shareholders.

This is deliberately vague. Firstly, it does not
mention that David Webb has filed a complaint with the Security Exchange
Commission and the Independent Commission Against Corruption. That is
a fact, and not a rumor. A Security Exchange Commission may affect the
outcome of the privatisation, so readers should know about it.
Secondly, it does not mention Fortis Insurance, never mind the fact that
Fortis used to be PCCW Insurance.

The report claimed:

The "minor actions" mentioned in the rumors are
difficult to verify ...

How hard is it to verify? Ming Pao went and knock on
the doors of these single-hand shareholders. Hong Kong Economic Times
used the public information to determine that Shell Company King Chen's
company is even a single-hand shareholder. If you say that you have no
information, you should note that the Security Exchange Commission has
published the information of the agents on the Internet. Can't you
check the relationship between the single-hand shareholders and Fortis?
Can't you check with Fortis? Of course you won't because you won't
even mention the name Fortis!

Related Link: Evidence Of Name
Seeding contains Next Weekly's follow-up of the public information
on the new small shareholders.

The Hong Kong Economic Journal has never set any
restrictions on our reporters, editors and writers about reporting and
commentary. We have always based everything on the facts, no matter
whether it is the privatization of PCCW or anything else. We will not
evade, but we will also not inflame.

I did not write anything about the storm over the
shareholder seeding in the case of the privatization of PCCW. Many
readers and netizens were unhappy. Ms. Cheung Chiuyung wrote in her
Hong Kong Economic Times column that she was disappointed in me because she
thought that I stayed silent because of the relationship between Richard Li
and the Hong Kong Economic Journal. Honest words may be offensive, but
I humbly accept them. The challenges from the readers will help me
keep my mind clear.

But I would like to tell everybody about the actual
situation. When the Hong Kong Economic Journal invited me back last
year, I only promised to work for a short time. Therefore I have no
compunction about giving the job as principal writer if I cannot say what I
want to say.

So why have I not said anything about this matter so far?
I am not interested in any market affair unless there are implications about
politics and government policies. I wrote about the CITIC Pacific
affair because I thought that Mr. Henry Fan was a member of the Executive
Council and his company was suspected of "insider trading." Therefore,
this was a matter of public interest. I have commented more than once
that this was a dereliction of duty by the supervisory agency.

In the privatization of PCCW, the price is a market issue.
In the struggle between large and small shareholders, I am emotionally on
the side of the small shareholders and I have no rational preference.
Name seeding is a dirty piece of action for which circumstantial evidence is
available. If this is true and in fact authorized by Richard Lee or
some other PCCW senior person, then stinks even more so than what Bernard
Madoff did. That would be very good topic to write commentary about as
well as permit me to get "my freedom" back sooner. It is a good thing
to have a column for me to say things. But frankly, 12 hours a day and
six days a week has worn me out after one year. I have been thinking
frequently about the days when I can just stare at the ocean.

At 2:50pm on February 11, a post entitled <An earthquake
just occurred in Hengyang!> at the Baidu forum for Hengyang city. This
post drew 47 pages of comment on the same day. The subject of
earthquake became the biggest news in Hengyang for the next two days.

In the evening of February 11, many netizens began to post
photos of a strange light arc in the sky over Hengyang.

According to <Hengyang Evening News>, there were strong
vibrations in most of the villages around Hengyang that evening. The
glass window panes and gates in some houses made noises. Earthquake
rumors then began to circulate through various channels. Many people
in Hengyang and surrounding areas escaped outside into the streets.
Hundreds of thousands of Hengyang residents slept in the street that night.

Our newspaper's hotline received the first tip at 12:01am
on February 12. More than 50 calls were received. At 5am, Mr.
Tang called to say that he felt the earth tremble four times and his parents
are still sitting by the roadside next to a fire.

According to the Hunan Province Earthquake Administration,
the earthquake monitoring stations in the province did not detect any
earthquake stronger than magnitude 1.0. But from 8pm on February 11,
the Earthquake Administraiton received "disaster reports" from Hengyang and
other places that an earthquake has occurred and houses have collapsed.

Yesterday, the Hengyang city government said that the
quakes were caused by a military exercise involving jet airplanes that took
place between 1pm and 11pm on February 11. Therefore, it is possible
that the airplanes may have generated turbulence while flying at low
altitudes to cause the mild vibrations of houses.

As for the "strange light arc" in the sky, the Hengyang
City Weather Bureau deuty director Wang Chuanqing said that these are the
contrails left behind by the airplanes and not earthquake precursors.

The Hengyang authorities did not condemn the "earthquake
rumors." They only praised the "strong earthquake safety sense of the
people of Hengyang."

I received an email from a friend today with photos of
netizens making jokes about the CCTV fire. His emails are usually
amusing, but I felt bad about this one and I could not bring myself to
laugh.

The reason is very simple: a fireman died at the scene.
His family, friends and colleagues are immersed in great sorrows. His
photo showed a young and handsome hand who had been married for just one
year. His wife is a nurse who was on duty that night and did not find
out about his death until she returned home from work the next morning.
It goes beyond cruelty if we joke about this sort of thing.

But I can't blame my friend, who does not know that
someone had died.

I think that there are many reasons why people usually
look at this fire with glee. Many people thought: "Look, things went
gone! They deserve it!"

The bad reputation of CCTV is longstanding and the
netizens are justified to be negative and critical about CCTV.

Frankly, I hold personal reservations about the
construction of the new CCTV site. Is this expensive and laborious
project necessary? How much corruption occurred during the
construction process? How many dark secrets are there? I don't
know so I won't comment. But the principals are no doubt aware
themselves.

After spending so much money to erect this building
(whether I personally like it or not), it is certainly a huge loss for it to
be destroyed by fire. My first reaction was: my heart was broken.

This is like the Summer Palace. You must admit that
it was the evidence of the extreme opulence of the feudal emperor who
exploited the people. But when it was destroyed by arson (no matter
why or by whom), I feel heartbroken and sorry when I think about it today.
When I watched the movie <Summer Palace>, I would cry.

Of course, the new CCTV building cannot be compared with
the Summer Palace because we cannot define it as "the extreme opulence of
the feudal emperor." Supporters of the building say that this is a
good thing that stimulates domestic demand and builds up Beijing. The
opponents say that this was a waste of money and labor. They may also
dislike the design itself, or else the main building wouldn't have gotten
the nickname of "Big Pants."

Personally, I feel the merits of the project will be
evaluated by later generatoins. The pyramid entrance to the Louver
Palace is still being criticized by more traditional French people but one
cannot deny that it is a world famous architectural landmark.

But no matter how much controversy exists about this
project and no matter what your views are about the CCTV organization, our
initial reaction in the face of this huge fire caused by human error should
not be to laugh.

If we are laugh when others cry and if we build our
happiness on the sorrow of others, then we should remember that what comes
around comes around and it will be our turn someday.

(Apple
Daily) The Summer Palace Fire and the CCTV Self-Immolation
(02/14/2009) By Yu Jie (note: Yu Jie is one of the initial signatories
of Charter 08)

When CCTV caught fire, the Chinese people clapped their
hands to cheer. This shows that the mouthpiece known as CCTV has a bad
reputation among the masses. The new and upcoming writer Han Han said
that like most Chinese people, he could not suppress his glee at the
misfortune: "As a news organization, CCTV basically has no journalistic
ethics. It can be said that outside of China, any news channel that
does what CCTV does in China would be breaking the law. But over here,
it is not only legal. It even represents the law. How much has
CCTV done in terms of lying, misleading, suppressing culture,
misrepresenting facts, covering up, abetting evil and putting on a show of
calm and peace?"

At first, the media were fumbling in their reports about
the CCTV fire. They said that it was illegal fireworks by the
construction company, or they said that it was caused by residents in the
neighborhood. But how could the small fireworks from ordinary people
cause such a big catastrophe? This is just commonsense knowledge.
Later, under public opinion pressure, CCTV was forced to admit that the fire
was caused by the fireworks it set off. Every Chinese New Year, CCTV
would spend a million yuan to hold a fireworks show which it filmed so that
the splendid scenes could be used to illustrate a peaceful and flourishing
epoch. This is a CCTV tradition. At the moment, an office
director has been identified as the scapegoat for causing the destruction of
several hundred million yuan of equipment and facilities. This fire is
the most serious urban fire since the founding of the People's Republic of
China.

But the truth is still behind the curtains. The
investigation may be touching only a corner of the iceberg. There are
many rumors in the street. The most typical one is this: The
construction and equipment of the new CCTV building have led to huge budget
overruns and astonishing corruption. The supervisory department is
taking a strong interest. Therefore, the CCTV senior leaders decided
to stage this "self-immolation" incident to destroy all the evidence.
Once the evidence is destroyed, they can get away untarnished.
Earlier, CCTV followed orders to stage the fake news of FLG practitioners
setting themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. Today, they must
surely be adept at staging the big show of "self-immolation?"

The self-immolation of CCTV reminds me of the fire in the
Forbidden City. In 1923, the ex-Emperor Pu Yi was still living in the
Forbidden City and he discovered that the theft of precious treasures by the
eunuchs was becoming an increasing problem. At the antique shops in
Beijing, there were large numbers of treasures stolen from the Forbidden
Palace on sale. Some of the antique shop owners were even eunuch
leaders themselves. Pu Yi wanted to stop the theft and he planned to
make an inventory of the treasures in the Forbidden City.

When that piece of news got out, a fire occurred near
Jianfu Palace inside the Forbidden Palace on the evening of June 27.
Jianfu Palace was the building with the most number of treasures in the
Forbidden City. The fire destroyed Jianfu Palace along with
innumerable treasures such as jewelry and antiques.

In his memoirs, Pu Yi wrote that the fire was deliberately
set off by the eunuchs who wanted to destroy the evidence of their thefts.
This fire firmed up Pu Yi's resolve to dismiss the eunuchs. Two weeks
later, he ordered more than 700 eunuchs to leave the Forbidden Palace.

History is often similar. China is a nation with a
long history, so that people don't have to be creative. If they
familiarize themselves with the history books, they will be able to pick up
the wisdom of their forebears and use it for themselves. The CCTV
leaders probably got their inspiration from the fire at the Forbidden
Palace.

Yesterday, the China Liaison Office and the Hong Kong and
Macau Affairs Office of the State Council held a meeting about the new
requirements that Hong Kong and Macau journalists must first apply to the
China Liaison Office for a permit first. Everybody knows that during
the Beijing Olympics, Hong Kong and Macau journalists did not need to seek
permission beforehand from anyone except to obtain the consent of the
interviewee. Thus, the Hong Kong and Macau journalists were able to
interview Ding Zilin (of the Mothers of Tiananmen Square), or mainland
rights defense lawyers, or oppressed villagers. The government could
not say that it was an illegal interview. But under the new rules
today, if the China Liaison Office does not issue a permit, then it becomes
an illegal interview. They can arrest you and they lock you up "in
accordance with the law." Is this a step backwards for press coverage?
Or a step forward according to what the China Liaison Office and the Hong
Kong and Macau Affairs Office say?

Yesterday, it was explained that journalists do not have
to obtain the consent of the interviewees first before applying. A
reporter asked, "If I apply to cover news related to June 4th, will you
issue a permit?" The official refused to answer. When asked
whether Apple Daily could apply for a permit, the answer was enough to make
you either cry or laugh. In Ming Pao, it was reported: "We welcome
those organizations who can adhere to professional conduct code to come."
When asked whether Apple Daily meets those standards, the answer was: "You
can decide for yourself." What kind of fucking answer is that?
You are the one who decides to issue a permit or not, so why are you asking
the journalists to decide for themselves? Who is issuing those
permits? The journalists or the mainland officials? These
mainland bureaucrats dared not come out to say that Apple Daily is not
allowed to cover news on the mainland, and they dare not say that Apple
Daily journalists did not meet professional standards. So they tell
the journalists present to decide for themselves. If the journalists
decide that Apple Daily meets the professional standards, will Beijing allow
Apple Daily journalists to enter? I am speechless at how the Hong Kong
and Macau Affairs Office dare to do something but don't dare to admit it.

Furthermore, Hong Kong is fully one hundred percent
Chinese territory. Everyday, the Hong Kong SAR Government wants the
people of Hong Kong to accept their identity as Chinese citizens.
Where else in the whole world are journalists from a country required to
obtain a permit to cover news in the capital city? Does the United
States require California journalists to apply for permits beforehand to
cover news in Washington DC? Does the United Kingdom require any
county newspaper journalists to apply for permits beforehand to cover news
in London? In China, they require the journalists from the Hong Kong
and Macau special administrative regions to apply for permits beforehand in
order to cover news in Beijing. Does this mean that Hong Kong and
Macau are not part of China?

Perhaps someone may say that Hong Kong is a special
administrative region under "one country, two systems" and therefore Hong
Kong journalists will be dealt with differently. Doesn't this mean
that the mainland citizens enjoy less freedom of press and have less right
to know than Hong Kong citizens? Doesn't this mean that mainland
citizens cannot learn certain information through mainland media?
Doesn't this mean that certain information should not be made known to Hong
Kong people through Hong Kong media? Is that why the Hong Kong media
are being barred to cover news on the mainland?

The family of a Chinese woman killed in a traffic accident
in New York on Saturday will leave for the United States soon, pending visa
approval. Feng Huang, 26, from Shanghai was killed early on Saturday
after being run over by a car driven by an intoxicated police officer. Her
boyfriend, Dennis Loffredo, is still in hospital.

"Feng's parents were frantic with grief at the loss of
their daughter," a former college classmate surnamed Gong told China Daily.
"Her parents are trying to get a US visa so they can go and identify and
claim the body," she said.

New York police said off-duty Jersey City police officer
Martin Abreu, 25, was driving his 2007 Toyota Camry south on West Street
when he ran into Feng and Loffredo at the intersection of Albany Street at
3:40 am on Saturday. Feng was pronounced dead at the scene, while her
boyfriend suffered a broken leg, police said. Abreu was arrested and has
been charged with manslaughter, vehicular assault and driving while
intoxicated, a New York Police Department spokeswoman said.

New York police refused to provide the exact results of a
sobriety test administered to Abreu other than to say it was above the legal
limit, the New York Daily News reported yesterday. It said the couple was
walking back to their apartment near Battery Park City after a night out at
the time.

On February 7, the Shanghai girl Feng Huang who had just
graduated from New York University was killed in a car accident. The
driver was a local police officer named Martin Abreu. He was
intoxicated at the time. The police is charging with vehicular
manslaughter and driving while intoxicated.

This is so sad.

But even as people were feeling sad over Feng Huang, the
mother of Martin Abreu has come out to defend his son. She said that
Feng Huang and her boyfriend were violating traffic rules when they crossed
West Street. "It was their fault."

The local police declined to say whether the two victims
were violating traffic rules.

Abreu's mother declared, "My son Martin is a good boy.
He should not be treated this way (that is, being arrested and charged with
vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated)." She even said
that there was nothing wrong with her son driving while intoxicated.
She said, "My son went out to have some drinks. He is entitled to have
a good time."

I have read many news reports on Abreu's mother. I
regret to say that she did not show any hint of an apology concerning her
son killing the Chinese girl Feng Huang while intoxicated.

But I thought this was consistent with the typical mode of
action in America. When Americans run into something, they always seek
to protect themselves first. This is how Americans think.

Americans have been educated repeatedly by lawyers about
how to get away with crimes. Abreu's mother is offering a typical
excuse -- it does not matter if Feng Huang is dead, it does not matter how
much responsibility her son bears in this accident and it does not matter
how much the victim deserves sorrow and pity, she will blame the victim
immediately. I believe that this will be Abreu's initial reaction as
well. In their vocabulary, there are no words to express an apology to
the victim. That would be left to the law. Even though Martin
Abreu was driving while intoxicated, his mother thinks that "her son was not
wrong" and "her son went out to have a few drinks and he is entitled to have
a good time." Even though she could not deny that her son was
intoxicated, she made light of it.

... When an American wants to apologize about something
that they did wrong, they won't say "Sorry." Instead, they will say
"thank you." So if Americans are late for a meeting, they won't walk
in and say, "Sorry we are late." Instead, they will say "Thank you for
waiting." Even if they say that they are "sorry," there are two levels
of meaning. The first level of meaning merely says that they feel bad
but they are not apologizing. For example, when the American early
warning plane collided with the Chinese jet, Secretary of State Colin Powell
said that he was "sorry" that an American airplane entered Chinese airspace.
He felt bad, but he was not actually apologizing. After China handed
back the airplane, Powell said, "We are sorry, but we did not apologize."
"Apologize" is the official word to express a formal apology. The
second level of "sorry" is the mildest form of an "apology." This is
the most typical way of excusing themselves. They will not consider
their offense against you is a mistake on their part. Rather they
thank you for helping and forgiving them. Their subtle choice between
"sorry" and "thank you" is a way of excusing themselves and blaming you.

When they really need to say "thank you," they will
actually increase their condemnation of you. Thus former Secretary of
Treasury Henry Paulson spoke about China buying huge amounts of US treasury
bills as evidence that China is manipulating its RMB currency -- this type
of American logic will probably never be understood by normal Chinese
persons.

For example, when the new CCTV building caught fire, CCTV
came out and told the people of China: "Sorry" and "we were wrong."

If the CCTV leader was an American, he would have praised
the people of China with "Thank you for your support" but he will not admit
that they did anything wrong.

Why do Americans insist on not apologizing? First of
all, if you apologize, then it is tantamount to an admission of guilt.
Secondly, you are showing that you are weak. American culture is a
culture of the strong, especially for politicians. They will never
display any weakness, because Americans adore strong figures. By
comparison, the Chinese people are more likely to side with the weaker
figures.

This is the most natural and consistent way of American
thinking. This type of thinking means that the United States and its
people can never be the moral exemplar for the world. So we should not
be too upset about what Abreu's mother said. The more important thing
is to send her son to face the court.

Hong Kong students do not like or want to be interested in
news and they do not like to read newspapers. Our school has
subscribed to many newspapers and we hold a "one minute of current affairs"
in our general knowledge class in order to cultivate the students to care
about society and the world. But we still don't have a next generation
of newspaper readers.

One of the causes is the teachers themselves. Among
the more than 50 teachers at school, only a few have the habit of reading
newspapers and keeping up current affairs. So how do we expect
students to acquire newspaper reading habits in this environment?

The next factor is the parents, which are even more
influential. Our school is just an ordinary elementary school and our
students come from middle-class families. A survey of the students
about their behavior away from school showed that newspaper reading parents
are in the minority. If they read, they are mostly reading sexy,
violent and dramatic news stories. Thus, this makes it even harder to
promote readership quality.

Most Hong Kong people have wrong ideas about newspaper
reading. The majority of them read newspapers in order to have topics
of conversation with others. Therefore, they choose relatively low
quality content. This is why entertainment and sensationalistic
stories are "big news" and this diminishes the ability of newspapers to
function as the conveyor of truth.

In order to meet the needs of the readers, newspaper have
vulgarized their contents. ... The quality of news workers is also
deteriorating with a very negative image among the people. There are
two diametrically opposite reasons why they cannot win respect. First,
they have interest relationships with certain groups who use the newspaper
to propagandize. Secondly, they have antagonistic relationships with
certain groups, such that ordinary people will avoid the news workers in
order not to get hurt.

The emotional embrace of freedom of speech by the people
has also hurt the newspaper industry. The sensationalistic newspapers
have taught the people of Hong Kong to always read news stories through a
colored lens. When certain sensitive events occur, they are usually
politicized in the name of freedom of speech. These phenomena has
caused the people of Hong Kong to develop a phobia about social, national
and global issues. Most Hong Kong people become convinced that they
are indifferent to current affairs. Therefore, they rarely consider
anything from multiple viewpoints. There is no chance that people will
have the desire to read several newspapers in order to see diverse
viewpoints.

(Taipei
Times) Next Media picks close aide to Ma to head TV station.
By Mo Yan-chih. February 12, 2009.

Former Taipei deputy mayor King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) will take
up the position of chief executive officer of Next Media’s (壹傳媒集團) new TV
station from Monday and promised objective reporting on the government
despite being a close aide to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

...Lai has expanded his media empire in Taiwan since 2003,
launching Taiwanese editions of the weekly Next Magazine and the Apple Daily
newspaper. The two publications have drawn criticism from the National
Communications Commission and the public over a muckraking style and graphic
photographs.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday it was inappropriate
for the firm to choose someone closely aligned with the president to head
its TV station. “King is a core aide to Ma. King’s political influence is
undeniable. [Putting] King in charge of a TV station would mean a return of
politics to the media field,” DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said,
adding that Ma and King owed the public an explanation.

With the news that former Taipei deputy mayor King
Pu-tsung taking the position of CEO of Next Media's TV station, the
Democratic Progessive Party wondered whether "this was another version of
party/government/military intervening with media!" Next Media Group
chairman Jimmy Lai said that he welcomes the doubts as well as monitoring by
other people. If he does something wrong, people can make criticisms.
"In the end, you have to watch what we do!" "I don't change my
position for any single person!" "Starting a television station for Ma
Ying-jeou? Do you think that he is my dad?" King responded that
the doubts are absurd and future facts will prove everything.

Democratic Progressive Party chairperson Tsai Ing-wen said
that she had been hoping that Next Media can continue with media
independence. So she "found it very regrettable" that Next Media has
hired a person who was deeply involved in the election campaigns of Ma Ying-jeou
and is still pulling the strings of the Kuomintang government. She
thought that the move was inappropriate because involves the problem of
separation of politics and media.

Jimmy Lai that the most important thing about the media is
to hold a position firmly. For him, this means "Great Taiwan"
irrespective of blue or green. "Would I change the position of the
television station because Pu-tsung is coming over?" In Hong Kong, Lai
is facing up to the tremendous pressures from the Communist Party and he
didn't budge in his position. If King is coming to help Ma Ying-jeou,
would he let him? "Am I crazy?"

As for the DPP doubts that the party/government/military
is intervening with media, Jimmy Lai said: "Did the Kuomintang give me my
money?" "What benefits has the Kuomintang given me?"

"We are a publicly listed company, so we are not printing
our own money." "I am such an anti-Communist, so how could I be using
Chinese capital!" "This must have been spoken by some idiot!"
When he failed to acquire the China Times group, he suspected that the
Chinese Communists played dirty tricks on him. So how could the
Chinese Communists be helping him now? He is an anti-Communist, and
that is why Next Media loses about 200 million HKD each year in advertising.

Jimmy Lai said that unless there is a government change in
China, he cannot enter China.

The privatization offer of HK$4.50 per share was
eventually put to shareholders and approved with 1.3 billion, or 82 percent,
of shares voted held by 1,403 shareholders being in favor. Eight hundred and
fifty-four shareholders, holding a total of 280 million shares, representing
8 percent of shares voted, voted against the privatization.

PCCW non-executive director David
Ford, who chaired the meeting, said allegations of a plan to rig the
privatization vote are still "matters of rumor and speculation" and remain
unsubstantiated.

According to our tally, there have been more than 800 new
PCCW shareholders since January 1st this year. We compared against the
list of agents at the Hong Kong Insurance Association and we found out that
250 of the new shareholders have the identical names as Fortis insurance
agents. More than 20 of those were brazen enough to list their address
as the Fortis company in Langham Place.

Here is what the magazine found out about some of these
new shareholders.

[The names in red are identical to Fortis insurance agents.]

Row#1: Five names are listed in the same apartment unit in
Tsuen Wan. The owner Young Hung Shek said: "I know nothing. I
did not sign any papers. I don't care about stocks. My children
took care of this stock purchase." When asked if his son worked at
Fortis, he said: "Yes, yes."

Row #2: Seven names are listed in the same apartment unit
in Tuen Mun. So Ngai Hong told the reporter that he is still on work
study but his sister who works at Fortis told him to purchase PCCW shares.
"My sister will never give me incorrect information! I let her take
care of everything." Later he said that he is a PCCW broadband user
who is quite satisfied with the service, and that was why he bought the
shares. "I don't remember if I signed any papers. I have these
kinds of documents to sign myself."

Row #3: Two names are listed in the same apartment unit in
Tien Shui Wai. Lee Ka Leung said that neither him nor Lee Tsz Kwan
work for Fortis, but his mother who is an insurance company worker gave him
some papers to sign previously: "My mother would never cause me harm!"
But he said that did not pay attention to what he signed. When the
reporter asked him why he bought PCCW shares, he was surprised: "What has
that got to do with purchasing shares>" He did not seem to be aware
that he had purchased shares. By this time, he seemed to have woke up
and said: "Why do I have to answer your questions?"

Row #4: Chung Yuk Ching lives in Sheung Shui. The
children said that she has never bought shares and she is an insurance agent
at Fortis.

Row #1: In Lai King, the father of Cheung Yuen Leung said
that his son is a manager at Fortis.

Row #2: In Shatin, Tang Yee Man said that she works at a
stock trading company. "in December, I read in <Oriental Daily> that
PCCW will be privatized at HK$ 4.20 per share. So I immediately bought
some shares. I should be able to make a few thousand dollars i
profit." When asked if she voted, she said: "I work at a stock trading
company and I know how to fill out the form. I voted to approve."
When the reporter asked 60-something-year-old Tang Yan Sang why she did not
bought shares together with her children but purchased separately, Tang Man
Yee interjected: "We bought at different prices. If we bought them
together, it will take a lot of effort to divide the money later on."

Row #3: In Tsuen Wan, six names were listed in the same
apartment unit. When the reporter went there, the mother said that
none of them lived there and then slammed the door.

Row #4: In Yuen Long, four names were listed in two
adjacent villages. An 80-year-old woman said: "My son is at work."

Row #5: In Central, three names were listed at the same
apartment unit. Wong Kam Fong admitted that she works for Fortis.
"Nobody told me to buy shares. I read in the newspapers that PCCW was
going to be privatized and so I bought the shares on my own. I don't
know about the other family members."

Row #6: Five names were listed at the same apartment unit
in Cheung Kwon O. No one was home.

Row #7: Chan Ka Wai is registered at an apartment unit in
Wong Tai Sin. According to the owner, Chan Ka Wai moved away many
years ago: "Since you know where he works, you can go there directly to see
him."

Row #8. Twenty-four shareholders with Macau
addresses registered their purchases on the same day (January 23, 2009).
Three of them hold 10,000 shares, 10 hold 3,000 shares and the rest hold the
minimum 1,000 shares.

[018] Is The CCTV Fire
An Act of God? (02/11/2009) (Shi Hua at DWnews)

[in translation]

There are two types of people in the world: those who
believe in acts of the Heavens and those who don't. This is true for
theists as well as atheists. Those who believe partially are believers
as opposed to total non-believers.

The believers say that people cannot push things to
extreme excess. When nobody can restrain you, you will be punished by
the Heavens. The non-believers say that acts of the Heavens are merely
imagined by superstitious folks. So when disasters occur, it was just
an occasional human error. As long as we adhere to the scientific
viewpoint and make fewer mistakes, we will win in the end.

The people on either side cannot convince the other side.
When they discuss, they usually end with quarrels, personal attacks and
unpleasantness. There are many possible explanations about any
emergency disaster, each with its own reasons. For example, different
people have different explanations about the CCTV fire. Some people
say that it was negligence in safety management, some say that the
fengshui of the place was bad, and some say that CCTV has aroused too
much anger. These explanations are each reasonable in their own way,
but ultimately I believe that this fire was an act of of the Heavens.
Why do I think that this was not a manmade error in which safety rules were
broken and the advice from the Public Security Bureau was ignored? Why
do I say that this is an act of the Heavens?

When a person, or a group, or a political party, or a
people arrives at a stage that nobody can warn or stop them, the only thing
left is for the Heavens to punish them. That would be an act of the
Heavens. CCTV is such a group. For certain artificial reasons,
the position of this group was elevated above others because it can help the
survival of a certain political party. As a result, CCTV can have or
do anything that it wants. Nobody can restrain it. Many people
know this for a fact, including former CCTV employees who know what goes on
inside.

Therefore, it was not an occasional error by CCTV to
ignore the warning from the Public Security Bureau. Rather, this is
its nature. Even if they heeded the warning this time, they will do
something similar next time. The fire may have been avoided this time,
but it will happen soon. Even if it was not a fire, there will be
another calamity for some other reason. The act of the Heavens is to
warn those people who no longer heed advice and warning. If these
people persist and refuse to heed the warnings, an even bigger act of the
Heavens will follow. The deluge in the Bible is one of those unmatched
acts of God.

A sign from the Heavens or an act of the Heavens conveys a
message. The message may not be understood unless one is respectful
and humble. Although I don't fully understand it, I have figured out
that one of the aspects is "balance." This is the minimum demand by
the Heavens for humans: balance. This may sound profound, but it is
actually very easy to explain.

The existence of everything is premised upon a certain
balance that exists from the smallest atoms to the microbes to the solar
system to the galaxy to the universe. In humans, the balance is for
the yin-yang, the bones, the muscles, the brains and the limbs. In a
society, the balance is for equality of wealth and political fairness.
In economics, the balance is between income and expenses and also asset
structures. There is no need to say more about the balance in nature.

When the Sichuan earthquake happened last year, the
Hollywood star Sharon Stone said: "This might be karma" and drew the wrath
of 100 million Chinese netizens. She apologized quickly. But six
months later, Chinese and American scientists have discovered that a water
reservoir nearby triggered the super-strong earthquake. Although the
investigation is still ongoing, it almost requires no proof to know that
natural catastrophes occur due to the imbalance between humans and nature,
as in the case of droughts, floods, forest fires, global warming and so on.

The global financial crisis has swallowed up more than 4
trillion US dollars in wealth. It was definitely not due to the action
of any individual or even country, and so it is an act of the Heavens.
Anyone who has studied the various imbalances would have known that the
economic system was unsustainable. For example, one side was spending
at a unprecedented pace while the other side was producing cheap products
without end. As the virtual economy expanded without limit, the
unregulated financial bubble burst and the real economy is going through an
unprecedented recession in which nobody wants to do real work anymore.

Usually, those who break the balance against the will of
the Heavens are big countries, or big political parties, or big interest
groups, since they won't listen to dissident voices or heed warnings.
Some of them use the force of the entire nation to restrict and censor
speech. In the United States, who can restrain the government except
for the voters? But when the voters lose their minds as well, no force
in the world can prevent America from doing stupid things. Except for
God.

China has gone through hard times for several thousand
years, especially in the last one hundred years. The number of
abnormal deaths in China exceeds that in any other country at any time in
history. China also leads the world in the pace at which the natural
environment is being destroyed. This is happening because China has
all of the three big things: A big nation, a big political party and big
interests groups. When these huge entities do not listen to advice,
they will face even greater acts of the Heavens. The ecological
structure, the social structure and the political structure are broken
beyond behind sustainable. People who keep looking for short-term
gains are magnifying these imbalances as if they want the speed up the final
total destruction.

The final question is why God's wrath does not spare the
poor pitiful people? Aren't all those people who die in the disasters
innocent? I have been thinking about this problem, and I've got it
figured out now. "There must be something detestable about these
pitiful people." Most of them have evaded their responsibilities and
refused to bear the risks when they refuse to support the few courageous
human rights defenders. They have let the authorities repeatedly act
against the laws of nature so that there is a one-party situation now.
May the act of the Heavens wake people up.

Former first lady Wu Shu-jen (吳淑珍) pleaded guilty to
forgery yesterday and not guilty to the other charges against her.

She admitted using fake receipts to gain reimbursements
from the presidential “state affairs” fund, but denied embezzling money from
the fund and other charges of taking bribes in connection with a land deal
and government construction project.

...

When asked about the Lungtan case, Wu denied corruption,
but admitted receiving NT$200 million from Taiwan Cement Corp (台泥) chairman
Leslie Koo (辜成允), which she called a “political donation.” She said
she had no idea why Koo would say that he had wired NT$400 million to her
and call it “commission” connected to the land deal, as prosecutors said he
did during a questioning session on Nov. 24 last year. Wu asked the judges
to help her locate the missing money, referring to the difference between
what she admitted receiving and the amount Koo claimed to have wired.

The former first lady admitted receiving US$2.2 million
from Nangang Exhibition Center contractor Kuo Chuan-ching (郭銓慶), not US$2.73
million as stated in the indictment. She did not say whether the US$2.2
million was a bribe as prosecutors allege or a political donation as she has
previously suggested. Kuo told prosecutors that he collected US$2.73 million
to bribe the former first family after winning the tender to build the
Nangang Exhibition Center.

Wu told the judges that the money she wired overseas came
from private family funds, not public funds, and her husband had no
knowledge of how she managed the family’s money.

...

After the hearing, Wu read a statement to reporters
outside the court building. She apologized for implicating “so many innocent
people” in the case and causing turmoil. “I will face the trial and
investigation openly and will appear before the court or prosecutors
whenever I am summoned, as long as my physical condition allows,” Wu said.

(Apple
Daily) (412 persons interviewed by interactive voice system on
February 10, 2009)

Wu Shu-jen has pled guilty to accepting a bribe in the
Nangang Exhibition Center case which was not connected to former Chen
Shui-bian. But she pleaded not guilty to corruption in the Lungtan
case and claimed that she only accepted a political contribution. What
do you think?
76.9%: This is obviously a totally insincere
selective admission of guilty to get Chen Shui-bian off. The judge
should not believe her.
12.1%: She is telling the truth and the judge
should believe her
10.9%: Don't know/no opinion

[016] The Speed of
Twitter During The CCTV Fire (02/11/2009) (Shen Yuzhe at My1510.cn)

[in translation]

Last night, a fire occurred at the northern annex of the
CCTV building. Apart from those people who actually live in Beijing
and who can see the fire live, the speed, breadth and depth of the breaking
news once again showed the incomparable advantage of Twitter in a country
with unique Chinese characteristics.

However, it was also unexpected that the Global Times
website was the quickest to react in this suddenly breaking crisis.
NetEase News then followed on the basis that Global Times must be
politically correct and issued a headline news report. As such,
NetEase has shown that it is the most alert to breaking news among the four
major Chinese web portals.

But no matter whether a New York City airplane was
successful in a forced landing or whether there was a terrorist attack in
India, or even the regular happenings in the Gaza Strip, Twitter has
successfully filled in what traditional media have not been able to cover
instantaneously. In many incdients, Twitter has been able to relate
what was happening at the scene to all those who may be located tens of
thousands of miles away and who will therefore feel as if they were right
there.

Outside China, Twitter is an important aid to timely
information for traditional media, but it cannot substitute for them
totally. In China, for reasons that everybody knows, it is customary
for major emergency incidents to wait for the Xinhua news report and photos.
Thus, the authorities customarily block all information to await for the
authoritative Xinhua report. Supposedly, this is being done to prevent
rumor mongering and social instability. In reality, it only encourages
the spread of roadside stories. Last night, the reports from Xinhua
and the China News Agency came belatedly and their focus was about certain
senior government leaders coming down to the scene to direct the
firefighting effort. They did not have much to say about what was
happening with the fire, and they were totally silent about any casualties.

Of course, Twitter is exceptional with respect to the
speed by which information on emergency incidents can be propagated.
But quick communication needs to be balanced with effective and comparative
accuracy. Twitter is carrying the observations of various persons from
their perspectives as well as the instantaneous interpretations from other
spectators. When there is a sea tide of information, every person
trying to get information from Twitter is tested to use a cool mind to make
a rational determination in quickly time.

For example, late last night, it was said that the Beijing
Internet Management Department has issued an emergency administrative order
to tone down the discussions on the fire. The Xinhua report was going
to be used everywhere. In order to confirm this unsubstantiated rumor,
the only option is to wait. Indeed, the web portals carried out the
action one after another. Therefore, this emergency bulletin must be
true.

Even though the mainstream websites were placed under
control, photos from the scene continued to come out. People were
sending back high-resolution photos quicker than the Xinhua reporters could.
Citizens near the scene used digital equipment to take videos which were
uploaded onto YouTube within half an hour.

Twitter may be said to be a new Internet force which tests
people to verify. But China is a country with unique circumstances in
which everybody knows what to choose between Xinhua and Twitter.

[015] The Problem Is
Not Because Speaking Shanghainese Is Uncivilized (02/11/2009) (Su
Zhongyue)

Recently, a Shanghai newspaper published an article
entitled <New Heroes Rush Into Shanghai Bund, No
Restrictions On Place Of Origin, All Of Them Elites>.
According to the article, "The new Shanghainese are most concentrated in the Pudong
district inside those tall office buildings. In Pudong, especially in
Lujiazui, everybody speaks putonghua. To speak the Shanghai dialect is
a sign of being uncivilized, like being a native American Indian. In
the restaurants and hotels of Pudong, the service people who hold the door
will say "Mister" in putonghua. But in Puxi along the gourmet street
on Huanghe Road, they will knock on your car door and say in Shanghai
dialect: "Brother, brother, are you looking for some place to eat?"
This shows how the densities of old and new Shanghainese vary."
Unexpectedly, this article seriously offended the feelings of the authentic
Shanghainese who heaped criticisms. As a result, the editorial
department of the newspaper apologized publicly. However, the
"authentic Shanghai people" were not mollified and they demanded a front
page apology.

Is speaking Shanghainese uncivilized? This is
clearly insupportable. Languages are not superior(inferior) or
noble(ignoble) per se. They are all means to exchange ideas, express
feelings and participate in social activities. But at the same time,
different languages (or dialects) are vastly different in terms of the
cultural content and they highlight the multicultural diversity around us.
But when there are so-called "mainstream" and "marginal" cultures, some
languages are more equal than others even though all languages are supposed
to be equal.

At present, more than half of the languages in the world
are facing the likelihood of extinction along with the cultures that they
represent. Dialects and the cultures that they represent al face
similar situations. It is important to respect and protect the
diversity of languages and cultures, in the same way that rare animals
should be protected with nary a moment to lose.

If the Shanghai newspaper article is correct, then it
means that Shanghai culture is beginning to see changes. This is not
unexpected, because all of China has undergone tremendous changes over the
past 30 years. How can we expect Shanghai culture not to change?
During the present reforms, Shanghai served as a "melting pot" which
produced a new "Shanghai culture" that is like a bowl of salad with all
sorts of colorful and disparate elements. But no matter what the
future Shanghai culture might turn out to be, Shanghai needs to establish a
self-confident and open urban culture if it wants to be come a cosmopolitan
city and the people of Shanghai must maintain a self-confident and open
attitude.

So why is a short essay irking certain Shanghai people?
I don't think that it is fully due to the linkage between the Shanghai
dialect with "being uncivilized." Rather, it is because the essay
described certain phenomena that touched certain sore points among certain
Shanghai people. First of all, the essay divided Shanghai into Pudong
and Puxi,and it contrasted how the service workers at the big hotels in
Lujiazui spoke putonghua while those at the small restaurants on Huanghelu
spoke Shanghainese. Thirty years ago (or even twenty years ago), the
people in Pudong were contemptuously being referred to as being "country
bumpkins." But today, things have reversed themselves completely.
More than a decade ago, there was already a popular saying: "A bed in Pudong
is better than a room in Puxi." Today, Pudong has replaced Puxi as the
calling card, windows and bright spot of the new Shanghai. On this
piece of land that represents the new Shanghai best, the people who are
creating new legends of wealth are increasingly more likely to be "country
bumpkins" who speak putonghua.

But if Shanghai is to discard its own body and assume a
new body in order to become a cosmopolitan city, it must go through these
growing pains. If this is said to be painful, then how many people
living in Zhongguan Village in Beijing can actually speak with the authentic
old Beijing accent? And we are not even talking about the people in
Zhongnanhai. I am presently staying in Los Angeles, where various
forms and styles of English are spoken. Many public signs are written
in English, Spanish and Chinese. The ATM machines are like that.
When you call service phone lines, you often hear: "Press 1 for English,
press 2 for Spanish, press 2 for Chinese." I once joked with a white
friend, "Before long, you will be hearing 'Press 2 for English'. When
even your White House has become the Black House, anything is possible."
He laughed mightily when he heard that. Isn't that so? The
father of the President of the United States is from Africa. The first
Lady has a great-grandfather who was a black slave. The reason why
America can become a prosperous nation has everything to do with its
tolerance. By comparison, when the "authentic Shanghainese"
over-reacted to this story, they are being somewhat petty. Speaking
the Shanghai dialect is obviously not a sign of "being uncivilized" but
their reactions cannot be said to be "civilized" either.

At 14:00 on February 8, there was a mass incident in
Dejiang county, Guizhou province in which the masses surrounded and attacked
the county government office with more than 2,000 spectators.

On this day, certain members of of the young peoploe's
dragon dancing team did not follow the regulations and performed in a
restricted area. When the city administrators tried to stop them, they
got unhappy and went down to the county government office building to demand
that they be allowed to perform in the traditional area. As a result,
they clashed with the police and the government workers at the scene, while
drawing more than 2,000 spectators. Three police officers and five
civilians were injured.

Teen film sensation MILEY
CYRUS has hit back after being accused of racism over a picture of her that
appeared on the net. In the offending snap, the 16-year-old, her boyfriend
JUSTIN GASTON and other pals pulled their eyes as they posed with an Asian
friend. But Hannah Montana star Miley wrote on her blog that she and pals
were merely "making goofy faces" in pictures that were interpreted "out of
context". She wrote: "In no way was I making fun of any ethnicity! I was
simply making a goofy face. When did that become newsworthy? It seems
someone is trying to make something out of nothing. "If that would have been
anyone else, it would have been overlooked! I definitely feel like the press
is trying to make me out as the new 'bad girl'. I really wish everyone
would stop focusing on my personal life and get back to focusing on what I
love! Music and acting!"

The photograph of Miley Cyrus and other
individuals slanting their eyes currently circulating the Internet is
offensive to the Asian Pacific American community and sets a terrible
example for her many young fans. This image falls within a long and
unfortunate history of people mocking and denigrating individuals of Asian
descent.

"Not only has Miley Cyrus and the other
individuals in the photograph encouraged and legitimized the taunting and
mocking of people of Asian descent, she has also insulted her many Asian
Pacific American fans," said George Wu, executive director of OCA. "The
inclusion of an Asian Pacific American individual in the photo does not make
it acceptable. OCA hopes that Miley Cyrus will apologize to her fans
and the APA community for this lapse in judgment and takes the opportunity
to better understand why the gesture is offensive."

[012] The Drought As
Media Show (02/08/2009) But this does show that public opinion
matters.

On the morning of February 7, the several thousand Henan
armed police officers went into the frontlines to combat the drought.
At Brigade 7 of Donggao village, the earth was cracked due to the lack of
moisture and the fields of wheat seedlings were yellowing. Since there
were no sources of water nearby, the officers went into the river two
kilometers away and bailed out buckets of water. Although the water
felt icy cold on their feet, they did not mind. In this single day,
the soldiers irrigated more than 2,000 mu of land and repaired more than 120
farming machines. In the following days, more officers and equipment
will be sent in.

At the present, not much effort is being made to fight the
drought in Henan. According to a farmer, "My family has seven mu
of land in total. Even if I get a harvest of seven or eight jin
per mu, I can't earn much. It costs 50 yuan to irrigate one
mu of land, and each mu has to be irrigated at least twice.
Counting the other costs, each mu of land will cost more than 200
yuan without even counting labor costs yet. Since the price for wheat
is at most 400 yuan per mu, this is not worthwhile." The
reporter spoke to almost thirty villagers. More than half of the
villages do not intend to transport water to irrigate their fields.
Instead, they will cast their fates to the heavens.

My home town is in Shengqiu. On the train back home,
I saw the wheat fields were all withered yellow with very few farmers
irrigating their fields. But when I read the Shengqiu Daily News, the
various levels of government are organizing to fight the drought and the
farmers are irrigating their fields. However, my hometown folks tell
me that the government is putting on a media show. They only irrigate
selected spots so as to provide photo opportunities for the newspapers and
television stations.

I traveled several other counties and I saw the same
thing. There were no farmers (never mind the cadres) out there in the
fields. I spoke to the farmers and their responses were disheartening:

1. We have no water works and we have no sources of water

2. The irrigation systems that we purchased years ago have
fallen into disuse, and when we drill wells, we cannot find water

3. It is not easy to make money by growing crops

4. Maybe the heavens will open up and rain soon, so let us
wait.

5. Nobody wants to do farming anymore because they can
easily make ten or twenty yuan a year by working outside. If you are
better, you can go and sell fake cigarettes/wine in the city and make one or
two hundred yuan a year, or even as much has one million yuan per year.
How can they earn as much by working in the farm fields? You work
yourself to death and you earn a few thousand yuan. When you run into
a natural disaster, you may even lose money.

6. Only stupid people go and irrigate fields. People
despise such people.

Recently, the photos of Lu Jiali have been circulating
around the Internet. She is one of the principals in the Shanghai
social security scandal, and it is said that she had been the mistress of
(1) the director of the Shanghai Nuclear Power Company; (2) the chairman of
a Shanghai investment company; (3) the former director of the Shanghai
Social Security Administration; (4) Qin Yu, the former Shanghai City
Government Office deputy secretary-general and later Baoshan district mayor;
(5) the Shanghai City Party deputy secretary-general; (6) the Shanghai
Electricity Company chairman; (7) the State Statistics Bureau director.

(STNN)
More interesting is this Internet public opinion poll in conjunction with
these photos.

Question: If you were a government official,
would you break the law for the sake of Lu Jiali?55%: Yes
30%: No
15%: Don't know

A reader commented: When I saw the results, I am
speechless -- are there any good men left in the world?

Almost 100 Taiwanese residing in the US gathered at the
Court of Appeals in Washington on Thursday to listen in on the latest
proceedings of a lawsuit brought by Roger Lin (林志昇) that is aimed at
ascertaining whether the US is still Taiwan’s principal occupying power and
whether Taiwanese can demand US passports from the US government based on
this.

In December 2006, Lin hired Charles Camp to represent this
case in the US legal system. Lin cited the fact that Japan merely gave up
its power over Taiwan and the Pescadores after surrendering in World War II
and that it did not return Taiwan’s sovereignty rights to China. He also
said that the San Francisco Peace Treaty did not deal with the sovereignty
issues of Taiwan and the Pescadores, adding that the US was still Taiwan’s
principal occupying power.

As a result, Lin and other Taiwanese residing in the US have requested that
the US legal system look into what rights Taiwanese have, including whether
they should be issued US passports based on the San Francisco Peace Treaty
and the US Constitution.

...

In Thursday’s hearing, former Judicial Yuan vice president
Cheng Chung-mo (城仲模), representing the plaintiffs, and an assistant
representing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared before the
court.

...

The lawsuit has however also caused an uproar among some
overseas Taiwanese groups who feel it conflicts with Taiwan’s
self-determination and independence.

In January, Cheng Chung-mo had criticized former president
Chen Shui-bian for being "unwise" to push for the referendum for Taiwan to
join the United Nations, on the grounds that Taiwan is not a nation.
He also said that the San Francisco Peace Treaty incidated that the Republic
of China was just a government in exile and not a sovereign independent
nation in Taiwan. Therefore, the American government should have
approved Taiwan to become independent. Also Cheng said that since Ma
Ying-jeou was not born in Taiwan, his election last year as president was
"invalid."

With respect to Cheng Chung-mo's assertion that Taiwan is
American territory, former Friends of Lee Teng-hui executor director Tsai
Shu-mei said that Taiwan is an independent sovereign nation "because what
passport is Cheng Chung-mo using when he travels outside Taiwan?"

KMT legislator Chang Hsien-yao emphasized that the
Republic of China ruled mainland China and Taiwan together in the four years
between 1945 and 1949. Therefore, there is no question that the
sovereignty rights of Taiwan belong to the Republic of China. DPP
legislative caucus leader Ker Chien-ming said that Japan gave up its power
over Taiwan after the Second World War, but it is not clear who the
sovereign rights went to. Therefore, the position of Taiwan is
undefined as yet. But no matter what, Taiwan is a nation that belongs
to the 23 million people there.

Chinese Culture University political science professor
George Tsai said: "How can a man be so shameless!" He thinks that if
Taiwan belongs to the United States, then why was Cheng Chung-mo a vice
president of the Republic of China Judicial Yuan?"

Former Judicial Yuan vice president Cheng Chung-mo is
promoting the turning of Taiwan as American territory so that the people of
Taiwan can get US passports. Do you support this?
51.7%: Don't support: Taiwan has independent sovereignty rights and does not
want to become American territory
30.0%: Support: It is a good thing to get an US passport
18.4%: Don't know/no opinion

[009] Shanghai Evening
News Insults The People of Shanghai (02/06/2009)

Shanghai Evening News carried an essay titled "New Heroes
Rush Into Shanghai Bund, No Restrictions On Place Of Origin, All Of Them
Elites" written by someone named Dawei. This essay drew the protests
of Shanghai residents, including a retired national leader who personally
called the Shanghai city party secretary Yu Zhengsheng to express his
concerns. Upon Yu's order, Shanghai Evening News has held an internal
meeting and issued a statement yesterday to admit that the essay has "hurt
the feelings of Shanghai readers."

(Shanghai
Evening News) New Heroes Rush Into Shanghai Bund, No
Restrictions On Place Of Origin, All Of Them Elites. By Dawei.
February 6, 2009.

In the 50 years before the 1980's, the people of Shanghai
are of one version with two special characteristics: they have a Shanghai
city household registration booklet and they speak the Shanghai dialect.
These were known as "old Shanghainese." The new Shanghainese today do
not speak the Shanghai dialect and they also have two special
characteristics: They have diplomas for higher education and they have
commercial grade housing ownership deeds. In the past, old
Shanghainese was like one big pot of porridge where the rice and water
cannot be separated; today, the new Shanghainese are like a piece of
glutinous rice cake where every bit is distinguishable.

There used to be a popular (but somewhat extreme) saying
that was known across all of China: "To the people of Beijing, everyone else
is a subordinate; to the people of Guangdong, everyone else is a northerner;
to the people of Shanghai, everyone else is a country bumpkin." When I
was young, we even called the vegetable growers in rural Shanghai "country
bumpkins." The country bumpkins sat on the pile of vegetables being
hauled to the market by their tractors and rebutted us: "Your mom was a
country bumpkin too!" That is correct, because my parents came from
Shandong province.

The new Shanghainese are most concentrated in the Pudong
district inside those tall office buildings. In Pudong, especially in
Lujiazui, everybody speaks putonghua. To speak the Shanghai dialect is
a sign of being uncivilized, like being a native American Indian. In
the restaurants and hotels of Pudong, the service people who hold the door
will say "Mister" in putonghua. But in Puxi along the gourmet street
on Huanghe Road, they will knock on your car door and say in Shanghai
dialect: "Brother, brother, are you looking for some place to eat?"
This shows how the densities of old and new Shanghainese vary.

There is a phenomenon in the real estate industry:
outsiders like to buy homes in Pudong, especially the better ones where more
than half of the buyers are from the outside. <Wenzhou Evening News>
organized a tour group to come to Shanghai to buy homes. Someone said
that the real estate price in Pudong is so high because of these outside
speculators. At the famous institutes of higher education, most of the
graduate students are from the outside. Outsiders are like the
Japanese, where people like Sanshiro Sugata go around challenging
everything; the Shanghaiese are like the French, who like the atmosphere in
the bars of Hengshan Road. The women are even more practical for they
are the cream of the nation. In the past, they will marry only
Shanghai men. By the 1980's, it was fashionable for them to marry
foreign men. At the time, I was a "handsome young man," but I had to
agree with the saying: white hair is not as good as black hair, and black
hair is not as good as blonde hair. Thus, Chinese pretty women were
marrying American Chinese men. Today, marriage is no longer so
private. The classified ads in newspapers are very explicit: "Don't
mind if you were married before, and don't care what your place of origin
is." The key point is: "Successful career." Those who have
successful careers are the elite, and they are often the heroes who have
ventured into the Shanghai Bund from the outside.

President Hu Jintao made visit of Jinggangshan City on
Saturday and Sunday, the eve of the traditional Chinese lunar new year.

...

Hu Jintao also toured the
home of a local villager. At Wu Jianzhong's house, Hu Jintao inquired about
the family's living conditions. President Hu Jintao was glad to hear that
the Wu's family received an income of 140 thousand yuan last year. Hu Jintao
also did some cooking. Hu Jintao also demonstrated his skill at making tofu.

Unfortunately, there is a completely different connotation
about what "making tofu" means to the common Chinese folks. Given that
background, how could anyone allow this photo to be shown?

According to legend, the tofu shops of ancient times were
husband-wife enterprises, whereby the husband wake up in the middle to the
night to make the tofu while the wife sells the tofu during the day.
Since the wife ate tofu regularly, she looked tender, delicate and
beautiful. As a result, all the men come down to the store and flirt
with her. Thus came the term "eating tofu 吃豆腐"
which means flirting with a female including taking advantage of her.

From this came the notion of "making tofu 磨豆腐" to describe
the act of intimacy between two lesbians. As to how they actually
"make tofu," it is better to use photos to illustrate (note: the photos
there actually don't explain it, but it is really mutual clitoral
stimulation by rubbing).

"We have arrested a 24-year-old Chinese man in Sau Mau
Ping district at about 3pm this afternoon. After initial investigation, we
believe he had direct links to the case" in To Kwa Wan, Senior
Superintendent Leung Ka-ming, head of the Kowloon West crime unit, said last
night. The arrest was the result of hours of co-ordinated effort from all
five regional crime units, he said. A source said the man was arrested in
his home at Lok Wah Estate, Sau Mau Ping.

The most recent murder, in To Kwa Wan, involved a
38-year-old Thai prostitute named Amy, who was found unconscious in her flat
on To Kwa Wan Road on January 31. A post-mortem examination showed she had
been suffocated.

Mr Leung said the unemployed man was also connected to
another prostitute murder in Sau Mau Ping on January 10. A 47-year-old
prostitute was found in her one-woman brothel in Chi Cheong Building at Yee
On Street at about 7pm. She had also been suffocated.

Police believed the Sau Mau Ping and To Kwa Wan murders
occurred during robberies that went wrong. Officers had found signs of
ransacking at the scene. "We believe the suspects had searched for property,
so we will follow the direction of a robbery-murder in the investigation,"
Mr Leung said.

According to sources, the 24-year-old suspect named Wong
dressed in black and went to a certain one-woman brothel at around 7pm on
January 31. At the time, the 38-year-old Thai prostitute named Amy was
having dinner with another prostitute next door. Both of them saw what
the suspect looked like via closed circuit television. Amy got up and
went next door to receive the client, and ended up being smothered to death
with a pillow.

Afterwards, the police spoke to the prostitute next door
and learned what the suspect looked like. They went to a neighborhood
convenience store about 50 meters away and obtained the surveillance tape
between 5pm and 9pm that evening. They found that the suspect had
shopped at the store and paid with an Octopus card. Next, the police
locked onto that Octopus card and retrieved all the usage data. Based
upon the activities, they determined that the card had belonged to the
deceased female. From there on, they began to track further usage of
that Octopus card which continued to be used over the next few days.

At the same time, the police locked onto the mobile phone
number of the deceased. That mobile phone went missing after her
death. Several days later, someone began to use that telephone.
They located the user and found out that the phone had been purchased at a
certain second-hand store. From the store, they obtained the HK ID of
the seller. This man was the principal suspect in the case.

Over the past two days, the police staked out the
residence of the man in Sau Mau Ping. At about 2pm, the man returned
to his apartment and the police took action. It was said that the man
attempted to resist and threw some evidence out of the window. The
police retrieved a bottle containing thinner and believed that this had been
used to render the victims unconscious.

A man rings the bell
at the one-woman brothel
around 7pm in the evening
of January 31, 2009

At around 8pm, the man
shopped at a convenience
store near the building
and paid with an Octopus card

The police determined that the
Octopus card belonged
to the deceased female

On February 12, 2006, Apple Daily ran a full page story
titled "Sexercise Cures All Diseases" based up on the recommendation from
the United Kingdom's National Health Service that periodic sex can improve
health. The story was illustrated by a a nude couple, with the left
breast of the female being clearly visible. In addition, the article
itsel contains words such as "sexual climax" and so on. Yesterday,
this photo was sent to the Obscene Articles Tribunal for classification.

According to Apple Daily, the same story was covered by
serious mainstream media including BBC as well as medical journals in the
west. The couple in the photo was merely staging French sculptor
Auguste Rodin's The Kiss.

In another case against Apple Daily, on September 22,
2006, Apple Daily published a story titled "Tiger Woods Outraged by 'Nude
Photo' of Wife." The story reported that golf player Tiger Woods is
considering legal action against a newspaper for publishing "a nude of photo
of his wife" and was illustrated by that nude photo which took up one third
of the page. According to Apple Daily, the female in the photo was
actually Portuguese football star Luis Figo's wife Helen Svedin and that it
was necessarily to show that photo in order to explain why Woods was
"outraged." (To read this story, see
Female Beauty)

A human rights protester was in police custody Monday
after throwing a shoe at Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during a speech at
Cambridge University.

The shoe landed several meters from the premier and the
man was quickly apprehended by security and handed over to police for
questioning on suspicion of committing a public order offence, according to
witnesses.

A student who witnessed the incident told CNN that the man
had stood up and shouted, "Why are you prostituting yourself? How can you
listen to the lies he is telling?"

Cameras filming the speech remained fixed on Wen during
the incident, but video images later showed an unidentified student being
escorted out of the building by a university proctor.

... The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said of the
incident: "The Chinese side has expressed its strong feelings against the
occurrence of the incident. The British side said that they are very sorry
that the incident should have happened and the person will be dealt with
according to law. Facts have shown that the despicable behavior of the
perpetrator is extremely unpopular and can in no way stem the tide of the
growing friendly relations and cooperation between China and Britain."

(Tiexue
BBS) [Note: This is a website with a heavy militaristic,
nationalistic flavor, so the question of interest is whether they allow a
backlash against the United Kingdom in the way that the assault on Jin Jing
in Paris led to a boycott of Carrefour.]

Right, China is really so much stronger than before, and
it will continue to be stronger! The Chinese people are filled with
confidence from top down. China wasn't like that before!

We the Chinese people under the leadership of the Chinese
government are friendly to the people of the world, and we have never
invaded any other country or harmed other people's interests. We the
Chinese people do not accept this unwarranted intrusion.

This type of people who oppose everything for the sake of
opposing is like a small particle of sand by the seaside. When someone
steps over him, he declares proudly: "Look, I pricked the bottom of the
foot!" But the foot does not feel anything, he can oppose whatever he
feels like opposing. In these dire times, nations have to cooperate
with each other and this is also the inevitable path of progress for
mankind. It does not matter how you smear the system and the democracy
of China, the prosperity of China will continue apace. The test of
time will show that this disturbance/protest is just a laughing stock.

The esteemed Premier demonstrated the self-confidence of
China. China is becoming increasingly self-confident. The rise
in power of China will only create even greater self-confidence.

Is this the so-called western democracy?
Interrupting the speech of a Premier who is deeply beloved in his own
country?
And this took place on the campus of the famous Cambridge University?
Is this how you treat a visiting Chinese head of state?
Is this the so-called Empire where the sun never sets?
Is this a nation that that boasts that it has many western gentlemen?
Oh, England! So is this what your true character is?
Oh, Great BZritain! You turn out to be the land of hooligans!

Do you know how to imitate Iraq? A shoe was thrown
in Baghdad, and an imitation act of shoe-throwing also took place in
Cambridge! This fully shows the arrogance of western "democracy"!
Sigh, these beasts are hopeless! Their intelligence quotient is zero
because their protest style has no creativity!

This is an awkward imitation. Bush was the occupier
of Iraq and he invited himself to Baghdad, and therefore he was not
welcomed. Premier Wen came to visit. If you British people do
not welcome him, you should say so and he can pass you by just like he
bypassed France. Once he is here, he is a guest. It was rude and
uncivilized to treat a guest this way.

The crusaders imitate the Islamists by throwing a shoe.
Aren't they afraid that their God would be angry? The world is so
hypocritical ... I cant bear to watch it.

Premier Wen is a Chinese leader and nobody except for the
Chinese people can throw a shoe at him. The action by the white people
is a grave insult to the people of China.

I was just watching Hong Kong TV news and the speech by
Wen Jiabao was censored. At the time, I was wondering if Wen Jiabao
got the Bush treatment. Now I know that it was just a loud
interjection. This is normal. It would be normal if nothing
happened.

What are they doing? The CCTV News Channel was
showing the whole speech live yesterday. Those local stations are
behind the times when they still try to impose blackouts!

At other Chinese forums, discussion of this incident seems
to be banned. So netizens are bringing back the previous posts on the
Baghdad incident and using the comments.

[004] Chen Hsin-yu
Screaming Again (02/03/2009) (Apple
Daily) When former ROC president Chen Shui-bian's daughter Chen
Hsin-yu arrived in the United States of America, she told the reporters that
she was there to take a Dentist Examination and therefore they can talk to her
afterwards. Today, she finished taking that examination. When she
came out, she stood in the street and yelled at the media for almost 20
minutes.

Chen Hsin-yu said that she did not do well in this examination because of the
media laid down a siege. "How can I do well when I feel so bad?"
When the reporters asked her when she will return to Taiwan, she said: "You
already know about my return airplane ticket and everything else. Why
are you still asking me anything?" She was almost in tears when she
yelled aloud: "I am here in New York! I wanted to say that I was going
to do some sightseeing after taking the exam. But where can I go now if
you are going to follow me around 24 hours a day? I was besieged in
Taiwan for six months! Is every day very special? Is every day
very special? I was besieged for a whole six months. Every day,
without exception. Every day!" Finally she said: "Nothing happens
to the person who holds an American passport. I am the daughter of Chen
Shui-bian and I deserve to be trampled under food. Nobody cares if I get
trampled to death. What did I do wrong!"

On Chinese New Year's Eve, there was a mysterious
explosion in front of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau building.
This turned out to be a suicide bomb incident directed against the Public
Security Bureau. A male bomber strapped a homemade bomb on his chest
and attempted to charge into the building. In the process, he
triggered off the device unintentionally and was blown to pieces. On
January 26 (Chinese New Year's Day), Xinhua issued a short bulletin which
said that there had been an explosion at noon on December 25 in front of the
Shanghai Public Security Bureau building and one man was killed. At
the time, there were very few people around. The police said that the
identity of the person needed to be determined. The cause of the
explosion was being investigated. The police said that the deceased
was shabbily dressed and he had a pile of miscellaneous items with him.
Since that bulletin, there has been no further information.

In citing the aforementioned information, the Central News
Agency (of Taiwan) said yesterday that this was a suicide bombing directed
against the Public Security Bureau. The perpetrator was a
40-something-year-old man from Jiangsu. He had strapped a homemade
explosive device with high explosives stuffed into cans on his chest.
He arrived by taxi to the front of the Public Security Bureau building.
When he got out of the taxi, he was ready to charge into the building.
When a guard told him to stop, he pulled aside his clothes to show the
device in order to threaten the guard. In the process, he set off the
bomb. At the scene of the incident, the innards of the man were
scattered all over the place.

At this time, the authorities have not determined the
identity of the man as yet. Based up outer appearance, he did not
appear to be a petitioner. This event is similar to Yang Jia murdering
six police officers in Shanghai in that both are direct assaults against the
Public Security Bureau. As a result, the news has rattled Zhongnanhai
and Chinese Communist Party Secretary-General Hu Jintao has personally
ordered an investigation. In Shanghai, the investigative squad of
several dozen persons has been formed with no results to show as yet.
The Shanghai City Publicity Department as ordered the media not to cover
this story, and Internet discussion of this incident is banned.

[002] Hong Kong
Netizen Gets More Than He Bargained For (02/01/2009) (Ming
Pao)

The case concerns a 12-year-old Hong Kong boy who claims
to be in Form 1 class, a Christian and living in the New Territories.
On January 23, the boy posted under the name of Liang Chai at a discussion
forum and said that he wants to "make money by making lover with females
between the ages of 10 to 45." He also posted a photo of his private
parts. He also offered to pay others in return for sexual services.
He included a detailed price list. He left his contact details
(including his MSN account information).

Based upon the published information, some netizen quickly
looked up his pesronal detail and posted them on Hong Kong discussion
forums. The information includes his photos, his blog, his Hong Kong
ID number, his school and class. Some netizens wanted to complain to
his school. Most of them heaped scorn and even vulgar curses in the
comments. They even said: "We will go to his school and shame him
publicly."

The boy deleted his post afterwards and made a public
apology to his school: "Principal and teachers, I am really sorry for
letting you down! Can you give me another chance?" He also pleased
with the netizens: "Sorry! I won't do this again!" and "You guys let
me off. I will never dare to be so naughty again. Please don't
go so hard on me!"

According to the Hkong Kong police, the maximum penalty
for posting child pornography on the Internet is years in jail and HKD 2
million in fines. It is also a crime to have sexual intercourse with
children. It is also against the personal privacy law to post the
personal information of the boy in this case.

[001] More About The
Fake AC Nielsen TV Ratings For Spring Festival Gala (02/01/2009)
The fake post is still going around (see KDNet
and MOP,
for example) which is more indicative for certain people's dislike of CCTV
than their respect for facts (which they may not have realized yet, of
course). In my previous comment,
I had said "The kinds of discrepancies in
the fake story here cannot possibly occur in real life, because the client
base would have rebelled first." Let me elaborate on what that means.
Suppose there are two ratings service in Guangzhou. One gives the Spring
Festival Gala a 90% share and the other gives it a 19% share.
Advertising agencies may be paying several million yuan a year to subscribe to
these ratings data. When the discrepancy is so large, they will
collectively demand an investigation, which will usually come from an outside
agency or consultant. Until as such time as when the technical issues
are resolved, they won't pay and they are right to do so. The outcome
will be that at least one ratings company and possibly even both ratings
company will be out of business. This is the market at work.

Having said all that, what might real ratings data look like? The
following chart comes from a third independent survey. Here all numbers
have been indexed to the average of the total sample. So when Xian shows
up with an index of 145, it means that it is 45% higher than the overall
average. Look at the numbers and you do not see the kind of differences
in the fake post. It is true that Foshan (Guangdong) province is low,
but Guangzhou, Haikou and Shenzhen are close to the average. It is true
that Changchun (in northeastern China) is high, but then Haerbin is low.

I would also like to explain just where the CCTV numbers
came from when they claimed an overall share of 95.6% of the audience.
CCTV commissioned a telephone survey.

When the Spring Festival Gala show went on the air, they
began to call household telephone numbers randomly all over China. Here
is what happens.

- If a household does not own a telephone, then they are not
part of the survey universe. Thus, certain remote areas of the country
are not included due to unavailability of telephone service. Also
excluded are households with mobile phones only but not landlines.

- If a telephone rings and nobody answers, it is not
included. The telephone may not be working, the household members may
have gone out, etc. This survey is only interested in the share of
viewing among viewers. On Chinese New Year's Eve, it is traditional to
hold a family dinner. Thus, the parents may host the dinner and the
brothers, sisters, cousins, children, nephew, nieces, grandchildren,
grandnephews and grandnieces all come over. It is not surprising that
there should be many homes with nobody home because their inhabitants have
gone visiting. Or if the weather is not
too cold, they could be out strolling in the streets. If you want a true
rating (=audience expressed as a percentage of the population), you will have
to make repeat calls to the same numbers to ascertain whether this was an
eligible household and what they did on on that evening. But the results of this survey had to published
almost immediately, so they could only report shares.

- If a telephone rings and someone answers, the question is:
"Is anyone watching television right now?" If the answer is no, it is
not included. The survey is only interested in the share of viewing
among viewers, and not in non-viewers.

- If someone answers that they are watching television, then
the question is "Which program are you watching?" The 95.6% is the
percentage that answered "Spring Festival Gala." This is a market share
-- of those people in the market (that is, watching television at the time),
95.6% of them were watching "Spring Festival Gala." It does not mean
that 95.6% of all persons in China was watching "Spring Festival Gala."

According the the 2005 CSM China TV Rating Yearbook that I
have with me, here are some of the 2004 television ratings/shares for "Spring
Festival Gala." The first number is a rating (=viewers as percentage of
population) and the second number is a share (=viewers of this program as a
percentage of viewers of any program).

Is there a pattern? There are two influential factors.
First, it is about the climate. It is much colder in the northeast.
In Harbin, 59.5%/90% = 66.1% of all persons were watching television. In
Shenzhen, only 15.5% / 44.9% = 33.6% of all persons were watching television.
Secondly, if you have to watch television that night, do you have attractive
alternatives? Shenzhen people can watch TVB and ATV from Hong Kong, so
they have more choices. You may not have much of a choice when you live
in Yinchuan, Guiyang, Hothut or Shejiazhuang. None of this is surprising
or unique -- just check the Super Bowl ratings in the USA.

The more interesting thing is that why should a fake post
draw so much attention? That's because it taps on the underlying real or
imaginary regional prejudices.